


King of Winter, Queen of Summer Thorns

by Gang_of_Shadow



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Sex, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Porn, Blow Jobs, Breeding, Cock Warming, Cunnilingus, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Dehumanization, Drugged Sex, Dubious Consent, Erotica, F/M, Forced Orgasm, Forced Pregnancy, Heavy Angst, Humiliation, Lactation, Lactation Kink, Master/Pet, Milking, Mind Control, Monster sex, Multi, Multiple Orgasms, Mutual Non-Con, Nipple Piercings, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Object Insertion, Oral Sex, Orgasm Denial, Porn, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Public Blow Jobs, Public Humiliation, Public Sex, Rape/Non-con Elements, Rough Sex, Vaginal Sex, Voyeurism, brain washing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:55:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 40,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26257480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gang_of_Shadow/pseuds/Gang_of_Shadow
Summary: AU/Fairy Tale Setting: Byleth, the daughter of the Summer Queen Rhea, makes the mistake of falling in love with the Winter King on his visit to their kingdom. Her mother had intended a very different fate for them both, and what she now considers a betrayal sends her over the edge into depravity._____Dimileth pairingByleth x Indech pairingVERY DEAD DOVE: DO NOT EATVery loosely inspired by the Norwegian fairy tale "White Bear King Valemon" with a smattering of other fair tales (ie. love at first sight, Beauty & Beast, Evil Queen, etc.)I want this to have a plot but I also have no idea what I'm doing so forgive me... T_TWill add tags as I go
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Rhea, Indech/My Unit | Byleth, dimileth - Relationship
Comments: 66
Kudos: 136





	1. Little Princess

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into writing content this explicit so... I'm sorry? I don't know what I'm doiiiiiing...
> 
> Did this have to be an FE3H fanfic? Probably not but my brain thinks it did so here we are...

Byleth had thought herself blessed the day the golden haired Winter King had arrived in the Summer Kingdom to pay respect to her mother. He was handsome and strong and everything a king ought to be. And he was young, much younger than her mother and closer to herself in age, though her mother had appeared to have stopped aging some time ago, before Byleth was born.

She knew her mother was intending to pursue him for marriage. Uniting their Kingdoms, creating an alliance and a strong heir was all her mother had wanted for as long as Byleth had been old enough to understand such things. Queen Rhea had never had any other children after Byleth was born, and never remarried after Byleth's father had died. She suspected her father's death had tainted their relationship somehow, but she had never been brave enough to confront her about it. Her mother had always been distant and particularly cold towards her, though she'd made attempts at affection over the years, they never quite made the mark - she never quite seemed entirely satisfied with her daughter as her soul heir.

They came from an ancient line of magically blessed people who had long since nearly died out. She and her mother were among the last of their blood. The Queen had always felt some measure of responsibility for keeping their line strong, but despite her best efforts, other suitors and lovers since Byleth's father, she never bore another child.

  
But now, her mother was practically ecstatic at the arrival of this young handsome king. His own line was rumoured to have magical blood. The thought of uniting such powerful houses practically made her mother giddy.

However, things didn't quite turn out as the Queen had planned. Byleth and King Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd had caught each other's eye the moment they were face to face. It started with bashful glances across the room, soft smiles every time their eyes met - then strolls through the Summer Gardens, briefly clasping hands when they were certain no one was looking. Byleth had felt a little ashamed at first, she'd known how much a marriage had meant to her mother, but she couldn't help the way hear heart leapt every time the King entered the room, how his ice blue eyes would capture hers every time his gaze fell upon her.

Less than a week into his stay at the Summer Palace, King Dimitri had asked her to marry him. Byleth had accepted without a second thought. Surely her mother would be happy with this marriage, even if it was not the one she had originally intended… Still she urged the King to wait before he broke the news to the Queen. Her King had begrudgingly agreed, but they were young, and so in love, and so, so foolish...

One day, one thing led to another. They had found themselves exploring one of the empty wings of the palace alone. Byleth's chaperones had been lost a long time ago. Kisses and caresses swiftly turned to panted breaths, lapping tongues and groping hands. He'd pinned her against a wall in a shadowy corner and pleaded with her to let him take her, for he loved her and he would marry her, whether her mother granted them her blessing or not. She loved him so dearly, with all her heart. So she let him truss up her skirts, hoist her up by her hips and plunge himself into her, taking her maidenhead.

Her King had been gentle for all his formidable size and strength, and the impressive length of his member. He took her slowly, letting her adjust to him inside her, kissing her lips sweetly until she was whimpering his name against his mouth. It wasn't until then that his pace quickened. He plunged into her so deeply, filling her completely until she felt as though she was falling away, swept by a wave of pleasure that made her shudder and shake, made her cry out his name, and her sex clench around him. His own body seemed to lose control just as hers did. He rutted into her, his movements more rushed and irregular until she felt his seed spill into her, hot and thick.

In the immediate aftermath of their coupling she felt a twinge of panic creep up her spine. She wasn't ignorant to the ways of men, how they could be cruel in the pursuit of a young woman's virtue. And he was a king. If he so desired he could and would take what he wanted, even if it was the princess of another kingdom. But to her great relief he didn't release her, he kept his rod sheathed within her still quivering channel and kissed her sweetly on the mouth - over and over again until her lips were swollen. He whispered his love for her in hot breaths against her skin until she was clenching around him once more and she could feel him becoming hard again.

He took her again, there against the wall, much more vigorously. Something seemed to change in him the second time. His grunts became more gruff and animal. At some point he buried his face in her neck and a moment later she felt his teeth sink into her flesh. To her own surprise the pain didn't scare or startle her. It made her blood boil, it made her feel claimed by him, her King. She'd let out an animal sound of her own and he immediately responded by pulling her blouse open roughly. She heard fabric tear but she didn't care because his mouth was on her breast, sucking and nipping and lapping at her taught nipple. She came over his thrusting rod again and he followed her shortly afterwards.

This time he crumpled to the floor, pulling her down with him so his throbbing cock was still buried deep inside her. With his arms wound tightly around her he again whispered his love for her hot against her skin between kisses and even the occasional flick of his tongue.

She looked down at him, his clear blue eyes staring up at her in wonder and reverence. "I love you, my King."

He grinned, looking happier than she'd ever seen him. Reaching up he brushed a lock of emerald hair from her sweat slicked brow. "Soon, my beloved, you will be my queen, and then you must call me Dimitri."

* * *

Byleth was woken by rough hands dragging her out of her bed in the middle of the night. Before she could scream a gag was placed around her mouth, pulled so tight it was painful. It was too dark for her to see who her assailants were and when she tried to lash out with magic it had no effect. The gag was followed by shackles linking her arms behind her back. Then without ceremony she was dragged into the hall and in the dim light she could see that the men carrying her away were palace guards.

Her eyes went wide and tears began to fall at this realization. As she was dragged through the halls she recognized their path was taking them to the great hall and her heart began to thunder in her chest.

As they passed through several corridors she saw bodies lying in pools of blood. Though it was still dark, she could see the crest of the Winter Kingdom on their livery. Suddenly her trembling stopped and her body went rigid and cold. Her mind swam with images of her beautiful golden king, her love, lying dead in a pool of his own blood. The tears continued to stream down her face, but her sobs were silent.

When she was finally dragged into the hall she saw her mother already sitting upon her tall throne. Her face was cold and emotionless, her emerald eyes almost glowed in the light of the torches that surrounded her. She was dressed in her most regal finery, every bit the sorceress queen that she was. Here eyes then fell to a figure kneeling between two knights at the foot of the throne and Byleth let out a desperate sob.

Her King, her love, sat there gagged and manacled just as she was. When he caught sight of her he growled and struggled against his bindings and his captors, but they beat him back down again. His right eye was already beginning to swell, and he had the beginnings of several other bruises marking his beautiful face. She could see blood staining his clothing on other parts of his body. The strangled sounds he made and he fought in vain to get to her shattered her heart.

When they were a few feet away from the dais the guards dropped her violently onto the marble floor. Unable to catch herself she fell awkwardly onto her shoulder, her head bouncing off the stone and she saw stars. While she was still trying to blink her vision clear again, her mother walked leisurely down from her throne to prod Byleth with the toe of her boot so that she was upright and kneeling before her Queen mother.

"Little _Princess_." She said with a sneer, as if the title was an insult. "You think that just because you are my daughter you can take what is mine?"

The Queen dropped down before her, grabbing her forcefully, painfully but her chin and jerked Byleth's face up at an awkward angle so their eyes met. "I made you. I gave you _everything_. And you decided to whore yourself out at the first opportunity. The second a pretty man paid you an ounce of attention you offered yourself to him."

Byleth tried to shake her head but her mother's grip was like a vice. "If you are so determined to offer your body up then then that shall be your new lot. You have disrespected me and our people, and now you will serve your people until your body falls apart and you are no further use me."

Byleth's eyes went wide. She tried to plead through the cloth in her mouth but no intelligible words came out. She had seen her mother angry, even furious, before but nothing like this. The look in those jewel-like green eyes was foreign, unfeeling and almost inhuman. There was no other emotion to be found in them but rage and hate, tinged with madness. Suddenly her mother pulled away, dropping Byleth's face as she turned dramatically towards the Winter King. "I did try. I tried to be a good Queen. I would have made you a good wife. What a pair we would have made. My magic and yours - OH! What a kingdom we should have had." She sighed, eyes drifting to focus on something in the distance that no one else saw. "But alas, you too decided it was far better to insult me in my own home, take my daughter and rut like animals in the shadows without so much as a ' _by-your-leave_ '. I will not stand for it, even from a king."

She circled around the kneeling king and traced the line of a bruise down his face with a long and delicate finger. If he hadn't been gagged Byleth was certain he would have bitten that finger off. His eyes were almost as wild as the Queen's were. "For your discretions, your insult, my dear King, you will watch as I give your pretty love to my men to be used until she is spent. And then I will take you and make you my creature. Your kingdom will lose their greatest asset because he was foolish enough to slight a _true_ Queen."

The Queen released the king abruptly and stalked back over to Byleth. Without another word she pulled out a knife and in one swift motion cut her nightgown open and then proceeded to cut any part of it that still clung to her to ribbons. She then reached down and tore the knife through her undergarments, baring Byleth entirely to the cold air of the great hall. As if she weren't horrified enough her mother reached down between her legs and slid her fingers roughly and painfully inside her.

The Queen tutted. "How unfortunate. Your little cunt is dry as a bone, my dear." Byleth whimpered through her gag. Fear and disbelief and her own nakedness had left her trembling mess. "I'll give you one last gift, my Little Princess. For you were a good girl until today." Reaching into the folds of her gown she pulled out a small vial. After roughly removing the gag from her daughter's mouth, she unstoppered the vial and pressed it to Byleth's lips. "Drink."

Byleth did not open her mouth. The Queen became annoyed. "I will give you one last chance, daughter. Drink if you wish for this to be less painful than it needs to be. Or do not and suffer. The choice is yours but choose now."

The fear took over and Byleth opened her lips for her mother to tip the contents of the vial down her throat. It did not have an unpleasant taste - slightly sweet with a hint of something she couldn't place. She didn't have much time to think on its taste however. Almost immediately she started to feel heat radiate through her body from her mouth, to her breasts which began to tingle, to her sex which began to pulse and drip with need. Despite herself she started panting. She didn't know what to do so she just looked at her poor, lovely king and tried to ignore what was happening to her.

The Queen had already circled back over to him, placing an almost loving hand atop his golden hair. "My, my... look at her, dear King Dimitri. She's already so slick you can see it dripping from that pretty little cunt of hers. Who shall we choose first to enjoy her, I wonder." The Queen scanned the rows of knights obediently lining the hall, standing at attention. She ended up choosing the two that had carried Byleth in from her bedroom. "For carrying out my orders so well." She crooned.

The men didn't require any further instructions. One went to stand before Byleth, who was already shuddering in anticipation. She knew this was all wrong, all horrible - a _nightmare_. But her mound ached. She felt swollen and desperate to be filled, but not by them. She wanted her King. But then the knight had pulled out this cock, a short but thick shaft, already hard and throbbing as he waved it before her face. In the next instant his hand was coiled in her hair and he was forcing his cock into her mouth and to her greatest shame and horror she moaned around him like it was the greatest sensation in the world to her. 

While the first guard was fucking her mouth, the one behind her seemed to be taking his time. He played with her breasts - squeezing them, rolling her nipples beneath his palm, pinching the little rosy peaks until she moaned even more. His hand slipped around her waist and down between her legs to stroke her crease. He seemed to have no problem finding a particular bundle of nerves between her slick folds which he proceeded to tease and rub and flick until her juices were streaming out, leaving her thighs glistening.

From the corner of her eye she could see her mother gripping Dimitri's head between her delicate hands, forcing him to watch her be defiled. "Look how she moans for them, my sweet King. That little whore is who you chose over a _true_ Queen. Though my little tincture may have helped her on a little, but that doesn't change what she is. A desperate little bitch that is good for nothing but breeding."

Just as her mother spoke of breeding her the guard behind her shoved his fingers into her slick channel and she came in a wet, wailing mess. As she moaned over the other guard's cock he released into her, shooting his hot seed down her throat. It was all she could do to swallow it down before she gagged. She could just barely hear Dimitri groan in agony as he watched the scene unfold.

While her sex was still spasming the man behind her shoved himself inside her, and holding onto her arms by the chain that connected them started thrusting roughly. Already another knight was standing before her with his cock out. She didn't even have time to gasp before it was being forced between her lips and she was being fucked from both sides.

It went on like this for a while. Men swapping in and out in front her or behind her once their brethren were spent. They toyed with her breasts and rubbed that sensitive spot above her entrance until she came for them over and over and over again. At some point when her body was hardly more than a rag doll one of the knights, the biggest one yet, lifted her up while fucking her from behind and walked them over to stand before the King at the Queen's behest.

He held her legs spread wide for them so they could watch his cock thrust in and out of her while she moaned for more. While she was held suspended there she too was granted a show of her own as the Queen reached down to the King's groin to pull his cock from his pants. With a shameful mixture of joy and horror Byleth saw that he was already hard and dripping from the tip, though he looked miserable as he watched them. The Queen began to stroke him, slow and leisurely with her long delicate fingers.

Byleth was no longer sure whether it was shame or lust that flushed her skin with heat. She could hardly care anymore because she was cumming again as she was being spread wide open before the man she loved while another man's seed was filling her womb. As if the Queen had planned it, Dimitri came as well, spewing his spend across Byleth's chest and belly.

A moment later she was dropped before Dimitri, a mess of sweat and slick, the seed of all the men before dribbling from her poor used cunt. She couldn't even move - couldn't even think. She wanted to die... She wanted to be filled again.

"Clean him, my little filth. It doesn't do to have our esteemed royal guest appear in such a state. People will think we're inhospitable." When Byleth didn't move she felt a tug on her arms which were still bound behind her back and she was raised up with a gasp. "Do be a good girl." Her mother said leaning in to brush a strand of sweat slick hair from her daughter's eyes. "I will not ask you again."

Once her mother had released her Byleth didn't hesitate. She leaned over and began to lap at the King's spent cock like the obedient pet she now was. The moment her tongue touched him he gave a sharp intake of breath through his gag. The more her tongue licked along his length the harder he became. A part of her, a very sick and sad part of her, was delighted. She could almost be convinced this meant he still cared for her.

"Well isn't that _nice_." The Queen spat. "It seems your lover can at least still lust after you even after such a debauched demonstration." The tone of the Queen's voice terrified her but Byleth dared not stop. "Perhaps this shall truly be my last gift to you, sweet daughter. Pleasure your King one last time before he is yours no longer."

Byleth obeyed as tears filled her eyes. She took the King's cock into her mouth and began to move her head. As she did so she felt something press up behind her, another cock, but this time it was pressed to her rear entrance. She froze instinctively until she felt a hand on the back of her head holding her down. "What did I say? You're not going to be ungrateful again are you, Little Princess?"

With her head held down over Dimitri's cock she felt the cock behind her start to press in. It was large and already slick, which provided the tiniest sliver of relief before he trust himself fully inside her. It hurt more than anything else had this entire night, but she couldn't move, couldn't cry out with her mouth filled with cock. She could only moan as she felt that same unnatural pleasure that had consumed her since her mother had given her that terrible potion.

  
As the man behind her started moving rhythmically in and out of her ass, fresh tears spilled down her face. But she kept moving her mouth over her beloved King. She didn't want to feel her mother's touch holding her in place as she filled her mouth with the King's shaft, though she was undeniably embedded in every part of what was being done to her this night. When the man behind her started moving more forcefully she knew he would be finish soon. She could feel herself clench around him instinctively, as though her body were no longer her own - simply reacting to stimulus.

She came when he did, her cries vibrating along the King's cock forcing him to follow them over the edge. She drank his spend down before collapsing into his lap, staring up at his beautiful blue eyes as they rained tears down upon her.

"Say good bye now, my loves." The Queen sighed, sounding immensely pleased with herself as Byleth was dragged away again. "We have so much to do ahead of us."

* * *

_Flashes of a dark room. Dim purple-blue light emanating from somewhere in the dark. The tinkling of metal, glass and ceramics. Strange smells - sometimes sulfur, sometimes strange herbs, sometimes burning._

_"She's awake again."_

_A sigh. "Give me the syringe."_

_Sharp pain in her neck. She can't see who is speaking._

_"We should get her back in the chamber."_

_"When I'm finished. I just have on more item on the list."_

* * *

_Snarling and grunting. The sounds of a wild beast and… sobbing?_

_Something was inside her, opening her cunt as her mother had called it. Already she was slick and… hot. She could feel her breasts aching. Was this a dream? A nightmare?_

_She moaned._

_"Interesting. This may be a good sign - what we're looking for."_

_"She'll wake."_

_The object inside her started thrusting in an out and she came, unable to move the rest of her body beyond shuddering in ecstasy, unable to open her eyes. Was this real?_

_"Oh, VERY good."_

_"I think she's conscious…"_

_"Give her a stronger dose. We're nearly done for today."_

_A sharp prick to her neck and the sounds and voices drifted away._

* * *

_"How is my little broodmare?" That voice… She had been in the dark for so long but that voice…._

_"Nearly there, I think, Your Majesty. The last twelve subjects were all positive. I think it is time to test her."_

_Her eyes adjusted to the room. Familiar purple-blue light trickled in from the corners of her vision. Then she saw two bright green eyes glaring down at her from the dark - cold and unfeeling. She was afraid. And upon seeing that fear they lit up with satisfaction._

_"Excellent. I've been so looking forward to this day."_

_"The Nabatean's will see glory once more, my Queen. Thanks to you, your innovation and vision."_

_"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." The green eyed woman replied. "There is much yet to do."_

_Another sharp pain in her neck and everything fell away._

* * *

"Wake up, Little Princess." The voice was calm, clinical, unfeeling. One of the same voices she'd heard in the dark.

Despite feeling groggy, like her mind was submerged under water, her eyes opened almost instantly at the command. "Oh, excellent." The voice was now quite pleased. "Raise your right arm for me." Byleth's arm shot up above her head. "Good, good. Now stand up and bend over, dear."

Byleth's vision was still clearing and her mind still trying to untangle itself, but her body obeyed without her having to even think. Despite not knowing what was happening she was already terrified. She strained to get a handle on what was going on. The first thing she could tell was that she was naked but for a strip of metal around her neck that pinched slightly but wasn't so tight that she felt any danger of choking. The next was that she was in the same room that she'd partially woken up to several times before she'd been sedated over and over again. It happened so many times she couldn't even count.

She tried to look to who was speaking but when she turned her head he commanded her to face forward and she obeyed immediately and without question. "Not yet, Little Princess. Now spread your legs, dear."

Once she did she felt hands upon her buttocks, spreading them apart, then something cold, slick and metal was being pressed into her rear hole. It sent a trill of heat radiating through her body. Instantly she felt moistness between the folds of her sex and she let out a soft whimper. "Very good, my dear." He said as the object was pushed in further until it was fully embedded into her hole to the hilt. She could feel something soft brushing against her thighs hanging from the end of it as he moved his hand away. "Now keep that held nice and tight until you are commanded otherwise, and straighten up for me."

Up she went, trying not to moan as she felt the rod inside her at this new angle, trying to ignore the slickness coating her inner thighs. Why couldn't she move? Why was this happening?

"Now I'm to prepare you for your big day, Little Princess." Finally the man speaking to her stepped before her. He was a horror. Scraggly white hair hung in wisps from his abnormally large and bulbous cranium. Both his eyes were an unnatural black with white irises, but one was significantly larger than the other and appeared to not really be an eye at all but a stone carved to look like an eye. He was hunched over in the robes of a dark mage. His face was emotionless but for a disturbing sort of glee that could be seen in his one small eye.

"Her majesty has gone to great lengths to ensure you were fit for your purpose. There have been many trials and errors, many failures… But at last you are ready."

"I don’t understand. What are you doing? _Why_ are you doing this?" Speaking was difficult. Not only was her throat hoarse as if from disuse, but she had to force the words out as though they were being blocked by some unseen barrier.

The wretched little man before her raised a quizzical eyebrow at her questioning before shrugging to himself. "I suppose some things can't be helped, though I should warn you, Little Princess, that speaking out of turn will result in punishment. You are a vessel now. Nothing more. You exist to serve the Queen and the Nabatean people. Through you will we restore their once proud race to their rightful place."

"But why? What did I do?"

The old man's arm darted out, much faster than she'd thought he was capable of moving, and pinched one of her nipples hard. "It is not your place to question, Little Princess. This is your place, your duty. You are to breed, to entertain, to obey. You belong to the Queen and she has decided this to be your fate. If you speak out you _will_ be punished. If you resist you _will_ be punished. The Queen yet holds some affection for you, despite your transgressions so be grateful. Things can still be much worse for you."

With that he stepped away and pulled a chord hanging from one of the far walls. A few moments later a gaggle of serving girls she didn't recognize shuffled in, each carrying a bundle in their arms. The last to enter was a tall, voluptuous woman with fiery red hair and an extravagant gown crusted with jewels and trimmed in black lace. She walked straight up to Byleth, taking her by the chin and turning her face this way and that, spinning her around so she could see everything, her gaze appraising. When she saw the tail protruding from her buttocks she made a sound as though she understood and went back to her women. She gave them instructions Byleth couldn't quite hear and then they set to work while she stood there like a statue.

They started by powdering her face, kohling her eyes, rouging her lips. She'd never worn such things before and having them painted on her skin now made her feel dirty. Not like that day though, nothing could be worse than how filthy she felt after that day…

"Oh my, the little thing looks positively terrified." The extravagant woman crooned. "Solon did you scare her already?"

"No need." He replied matter-of-factly. "I expect she has enough of an idea of what she is to expect."

"Oh dear, what a filthy thing. She's leaking just thinking about it." Byleth didn't need to look to know that her cunt was still dripping since the old man had stuffed the tail into her. "Plug her up girls, will you? You know how her majesty likes things just so until she's ready."

One of the girls rummaged through one of their bundles and pulled out another metal rod that once inserted covered her slit and her mound with a thin layer of metal and almost created the illusion she was wearing something over her intimate parts. The shaft of the metal rod was long and thick, and at first she hadn't thought it would fit when they raised her leg and started to push it in, but she was so wet already that her sheath gave almost no resistance. "Now don't let go, Little Princess. Her Majesty will be quite cross if you make a mess."

Byleth felt the muscles of her sex tighten around both the rods that had been inserted into her and another whimper escaped her. "Oh you, have outdone yourself this time, Solon." The woman said, clapping her hands ecstatically. "She'll love it. They all will."

"I do hope so. She is my crowning achievement, if I do say so myself."

The women continued their work, moving next to her breasts where they inserted silver rings into each sensitive nipple. She hadn't realized they'd been pierced. To the rings they attached a rather delicate silver chain, matching the silver rod they'd just inserted into her cunt. As each ring was inserted she wanted to cry out, to weep, but she bit it all back. She could control this. She had to learn to before she truly became the beast they wanted her to be. Before they were done with her breasts the red haired woman couldn't resist giving the chain a little tug and watching her squirm.

Next they attached a harness to her head with a ring inserted into her mouth, propping it open, and leather ears attached to her head to match the tail. The chain connecting her nipples was then linked to another attached to the harness so that if she were to turn or shift her head to much it would tug at her breasts sending ripples of pleasure through her body.

As the maids were starting to pack up their things Byleth was already drooling from the harness in her mouth. "Hmm." Solon said wiping it away with a cloth. "Perhaps something else until she has been presented, Lady Cornelia."

"Pity. It's such a pretty sight." She turned back to her supplies, made an exclamation of excitement and then turned back with yet another silver rod. "How silly of me. This matches so much better."

She pulled the ring out herself unstrapping it from the harness and then inserted the metal rod into Byleths still gaping mouth. Once her lips closed over it a metal plate covered her entire mouth, and the apparatus too was hooked into the harness so it could not be removed easily.

The finishing touch was a leash, hooked to the collar that she already wore by Solon. She felt a sort of hum reverberate through her as the length of black chain was connected to the metal around her neck and she wondered if this was the magic they had employed to keep her obedient. "Aren't you a pretty sight, Little Princess. They will love you."

"Best not keep her waiting any longer." Solon urged the servants out of the room but Cornelia remained.

"Time to show you off." Cornelia squealed.

"Down on your hands and knees, Little Princess." Solon commanded, holding the end of her lead. "You are a broodmare. Never forget." Byleth obeyed and inside another piece of her died.

There was a flash of light and then they were no longer in the strange chamber but the great hall. It had changed greatly from the last time she'd seen it. The once bright and welcoming chamber was now dark, cast in blacks and greys. Light still streamed in from some of the high windows but most had been blocked by billowing back drapes. The green and white that had once been the Summer Kingdom's crest had been replaced with heraldry depicting a poison green dragon over a black backdrop.

In center of the room, sitting before the Queen's raised dais was a large cage forged of angry, jagged back iron. She knew instantly that it was meant for her.

The room was filled with onlookers - Dark robed courtiers, more like Solon with strange eyes, and sickly pale skin. Some she even recognized. Solon and Cornelia began walking towards the dais where the Queen already sat, several black clad guards lining the area around her throne. As they walked Solon tugged on the leash, her indication to start moving.

As she moved the rods stuffed into her rubbed her in ways that made her want to cry out. She was almost grateful she had been gagged. She continued to crawl behind them, unable to look ahead for the shame of it all.

When they did come to a stop, having passed the cage she did finally look up and to her great misery she saw something even more terrible standing before her. It was not her cruel mother who sneered down at her with glee. It was her love, her Winter King. He stood next to the throne, his hand cupping the Queen's full breast, massaging it while her own hand stroked the outline of his rigid cock over his trousers. He looked older somehow, but still as beautiful as she remembered. But his eyes… They glared down at her with contempt, one icey blue, the other like Solon's - a black stone with a strange sigil carved into it. _What have they done to you?_

"You see, my King?" The Queen crooned to the man that Byleth loved. "I told you I had a lovely present for you today."

"A bitch in heat?" he replied with amusement.

"Just so."

"As requested, Your Majesties." Solon said with a bow. "She is ready."

Byleth trembled. Solon had been right when he spoke before. She knew what she had been brought here for last time could not be so different from what she had been brought here for now.

"Is her mate ready?" The Queen asked, the excitement clear in her voice.

"Indeed, my Queen."

"Wonderful. I don't think I'll have them caged just yet. I would like witness this first endeavor up close."

Solon walked up to the dais, Byleth's leash in hand and offered it to the King and Queen. "It is not required to command but you may still like to have it for an extra measure of control. She will do whatever is commanded of her. All commands can be overruled by you, My Queen."

"Oh, lovely." She sighed happily before turning to the King. "Would you like to play first my love? I did promise."

She offered him the leash and he took it without hesitation. "I would indeed."

Dimitri, her Dimitri, descended the dais, leash in hand and tugged her to him roughly. His eyes were cold, cruel. He didn't even look like he recognized her. She wept, even as her body burned at this sudden proximity to him. He held her up by the collar and removed the rod gagging her mouth, laughing as she gasped for air, and drool ran down her chin. "Show me what a good little breeding bitch you are, Little Princess." He'd never called her that. The horror of it sent a cold chill through her spine. It lasted only a moment before the heat returned as he pulled his cock free from him pants.

He didn't even need to speak. Something triggered her originating from the collar around her neck and she immediately circled his rod with her mouth and started to lick and suck as though she were hungry for it. "By the Goddess! She didn't even hesitate."

She closed her eyes as her body did what it was bidden without her willing it to. She tried to tell herself at least it was her love. At least she had known his love once. She still had that memory, tainted though it was. Even if he was no longer that man. Even if her mother had stolen him, twisted him, made him wrong.

He started bucking his hips up to meet her mouth, tugging on the chains connected to her breasts and collar while thrusting more violently until he released his seed into her with a final few shuddering thrusts. As soon as his spend touched her tongue she felt herself cum around the rods in her other holes, moaning as he pulled his still dripping cock from her lips. He chuckled as he shoved himself back into his pants, and while she was still twitching in a heap on the floor he circled around to her rear to examine the rest of her.

"Might as well rid you of this, little bitch." He said pulling the rod from her pussy. She could feel her juices trickling out now that they were free to do so, eliciting another amazed chuckle from the king. "It truly is like she's in heat."

"For all intents and purposes she is, your Majesty. Though it is an artificial one of course. Her body does not control it, we do." Solon chimed in. "Just one of the many improvements we've made in order to further your divine goals, my Queen."

"Marvelous." The Queen was descending the steps now to get a better look, just as the King was shoving his fingers into her slick entrance. She shuddered and almost came again.

"Still so tight after having that rod insider her." He was taking so much pleasure in this… But she thought his voice sounded off. Like it wasn't his own. That was likely just delusion, wishful thinking on her part.

"His Highness has discovered another of our improvements. She should be markedly resilient physically. And should that change it is easily remedied."

With his fingers still in her cunt, the king started to tug on her tail forcing her to inhale sharply. He didn't pull the implement all the way out, rather began to slowly thrust it in and out of her while his fingers did the same to her aching pussy until she came again, her slick muscles clenching so tight around his fingers she thought he wouldn't be able to remove them. But remove them he did, wiping her slick from his fingers onto her backside. He made sure the tail was once again securely lodged inside her before getting back to his feet and returning to the Queen's side.

"Well?" The Queen looked at him expectantly.

"The perfect little whore, just as you said." He leaned in and Byleth watched as he kissed the Queen - mouths open, tongues delving in to thrust against each other. She sobbed, turning her face to stare at the marble floor. "You will let me play with her from time to time, won't you, my love?"

"Of course, my King. But for now she has a job to do. Get up, Little Princess." On command Byleth uncrumpled herself and went back to her hands and knees, presenting herself.

The Queen snapped her fingers and there was a flash of purplish light. Once it had faded in its place stood a knight holding the leash of a green haired, blindfolded man. He was as naked as she was, and his terrifyingly large cock already standing to attention. "You remember me telling you of poor long lost cousin Indech right, my Little Princess? Well isn't it lovely, but he has been returned to us! Unfortunately he's not much more than a beast these days. He went a little mad living out in the wild like an animal, but that doesn't mean he's out lived his uses. He's quite perfect actually. Even in his madness he will serve the Nabatean people, just like you, my pet."

Byleth couldn't help but tremble as the green haired man, her cousin, was led around and behind her by the knight. As he went he sniffed at her like a dog, his cock bobbing when he got to her cunt. Byleth could see a similar collar around his neck which made her wonder if he truly was mad or just trapped as she was. It didn't matter in the end though. The tip of his cock was already pressed against her wet folds, waiting for the Queen to command him.

"Now be a good girl for your mate, Little Princess. You take what he has to give. All of it."

This time the Queen wanted a response. "Yes." She replied with a shaky voice.

"Yes, Mistress." The Queen corrected sweetly.

"Yes, Mistress." She repeated obediently and was rewarded with Indech's cock thrusting into her to the hilt.

There was no preamble, no slow build up. He rutted into her like the beast the Queen had said he was, thrusting hard and fast until she was screaming from the pleasure and pain of it. At some point she realized all the sounds were coming from her - whether it was her sinful moaning, or the wet sounds her sex made as he impaled her relentlessly. He made the occasional grunt but that was all.

Eventually she felt him tense behind her but he kept his pace right up until he released his seed, pulling her against him so his hips were flush with her backside. She couldn't help herself, she came again while his seed filled her. She wanted to lie down, catch her breath, sleep forever. But the Queen had ordered her to get up, so up she remained. Even though her hands and knees were getting sore, and the cold marble stung her bare skin.

"Hmm." Byleth looked over at the contemplative sound. "You are not permitted to cum until I say so. Or perhaps if you beg sweetly, Little Princess, I may change my mind."

Byleth felt something ripple through her body emanating from the collar and she knew she would not be able to find release, no matter what was done to her, until the Queen permitted it. Her body was no longer her own.

Indech began to move again, just as fast and rough as the first time. His cock had never left her hole, plugging it up so his seed remained inside. She could feel the now familiar build up of pleasure but now there was no hope of reaching it, not until she was permitted. He came quicker the second time, but filled her with just as much seed to the point where she felt full, too full almost. Again he didn't unsheathe himself from her, ensuring as much of his spend remained inside her has possible.

"Turn and face us." The Queen commanded. Indech obeyed silently, wrapping an arm around her midsection and turning them both so they were now facing the throne. He hooked her arms behind her back, locking them in place with his so that her back arched and her breasts were thrust forward. He began thrusting again with her on display for her masters. A pathetic keening sound escaped her lips as he moved in and out, his cock rubbing against the rod still lodged in her rear hole, driving her mad with need. But she would not beg.

"That's much better. Would you like to see what your King and I have been up to while you were asleep, Little Princess?" She didn't require an answer before she got down on her knees before the King pulling him free of his trousers once more and began to take him in her mouth. A pleased grin spread across his face as he reached down to tangle his fingers in her long leaf green hair. His touch was not rough or hurried though. He was gentle, almost loving.

Tears began to spill down Byleth's face once more even as guttural noises continued to spill forth from her gasping mouth. The King laughed as he watched her being fucked - being bred. "She weeps, my love."

The Queen pulled away to look back at the pair rutting before them. "Of course she does. She loves you." She said sweetly as she turned back to him, placing a soft kiss long his length while she stroked him with her slender fingers. "But she will never love you as much as I do."

"Is that possible for her to feel such things? She's just as much a beast as the creature fucking her." He spat. The Queen gave her one last wicked grin before turning back to servicing the King.

As if to add insult to injury, Indech came in her again. Again she could find no release, just the constant build of pressure that by now was more pain than pleasure. Along with this pain, there was also another pressure building within her to add to the first. With each new flood of seed her womb was becoming full, expanding her belly out as though she were already pregnant. Now that she was upright she could see it as well as feel it.

Indech started again almost immediately and Byleth wished she were dead. She wished she'd never woken from her strange slumber. She wished her King had never come to the Summer lands if it would mean they would both be free of this nightmare.

* * *

Her mate continued to rut into her for what she thought must have been hours, spilling his seed into her womb over and over again until her belly was too full to take any more and it started to spill out into a puddle beneath them.

Eventually some of the Queen's courtiers lost interest, going back to what ever conversations they'd been having before she'd been paraded into the great hall and put on display. Others still had their cocks out, stroking themselves absentmindedly as they continued to watch.

From time to time the Queen or the King would command they move, change positions. At one point Indech was ordered to lift Byleth's leg and fuck into her "like a bitch in heat". A few times the King returned to have her suck his cock. She had long since separated her consciousness from the present moment. Obeying without question, her eyes glazed over. The only thing she felt was the need for release which she was being denied, time and again.

When finally Indech was spent he collapsed over her, still lodged obediently in her cunt, her belly still swollen with his spend. "Oh at last!" The Queen exclaimed rushing down to them, ignoring the mess before her as she leaned over them, Solon following not far behind. He handed her the rod that had been lodged in Byleth's cunt when they'd first brought her before the Queen. "As much as I've enjoyed this display, I am anxious to see results. It's been so many years."

Byleth was practically out of her mind with pain and need but she had caught what the Queen had said. _Years?_

"We will know in a few days, Your Majesty."

"Off with you, beast." She commanded Indech and he rolled off of his mate immediately. He turned her over onto her back without requiring further instruction, his excess seed spilling out of her swollen lower lips. He held her down while the Queen plugged her entrance with the tip of the metal rod. "Would you like to cum now, my Little Princess?"

Byleth didn't say anything. As much as it hurt how her body was crying out to be released - she refused. "You always were such a shy little thing. Perhaps your King can convince you?"

The King sauntered leisurely over to her, straddled her abdomen and sunk down over her. His cock was already free and dripping as he placed it between her breasts, tugging on the chain that linked them until she squirmed. "I've been wondering all day what it would be like to fuck these, Little Princess." He pressed her soft flesh up around his hot length and began moving over her. "You want to cum, don't you?"

She keened, but couldn't deny him. "Yes." she breathed, barley more than a whisper.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, my King."

He pinched her nipples painfully. "No, I'm afraid not. King's rule their _people_. You are cattle, my little broodmare - a toy. I am your Master."

She wept, but the words spilled from her lips anyway. "Yes, Master."

Immediately after the words had left her lips the Queen shoved the rod back inside her and she came more violently than she ever had before. It was so entwined with the pain that wracked her body that she wasn't sure what she was feeling anymore, just that her release finally came, rippling through her body in violent convulsions. She barely even noticed when the King shot his hot seed onto her face, or when Solon swapped places with the Queen and cast some sort of spell over her stuffed cunt.

She heard the Queen and the dark mage exchange words but the sound was all muffled by her own blood thundering through her veins. She was starting to drift away as the shock-waves sweeping through her slowly abated. The King was still kneeling over her, reaching out to smear his spend over her lips and onto her lolling tongue. She was too weak and delirious to react. He leaned over her, looking into her glazed over eyes and spoke so only she could hear. "My good girl. Still mine, my beloved." He kissed her softly, but she didn't know what this meant and had no time to ponder it. Before he left her he leaned into the crook of her neck and bit down hard. The pain of it fizzled along with the rest of her body until she was consumed by darkness.


	2. Fertility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny bit of softness, but mostly bad times for Byleth.
> 
> Is Indech home? Maybe... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Byleth woke to several different sensations at once. The first being an intense heat spreading throughout her whole body. The next was the sensation of something penetrating her, vigorously moving in and out of her core as she lay there half awake on the cold marble. While still barely conscious she felt something shifting her around so she was propped up on her knees, her rear in the air, providing easier access for impaling her already throbbing cunt. She was forced to brace herself on her forearms to avoid her face smashing into the stone with each thrust.

As her vision cleared she found herself in the cage in the centre of the great hall. Looking behind her she was unsurprised to find her mate rutting away. She didn't know how long he'd been at it. There was clearly already seed trickling down her legs and she'd woken to him already fucking into her unconscious form - she wasn't sure how it was possible she could have slept through it but she had...

She tried her best to keep her mind clear to take in her surroundings but the lust that flared through her threatened to take over her thoughts. There were fewer people milling about the hall at this time of day, which based on the colour of the light trickling in from the high windows would be early morning at a guess. Most of them didn't even pay attention to the pair in the cage, likely servants preparing for the day's coming audiences. A few courtiers were watching intently, clearly looking to get their rocks off with fewer people around to observe or distract them. The Queen and her stolen king were nowhere to be seen.

Looking down at herself as best she could she saw that someone had cleaned the both of them. Her hair and skin were no longer a sticky mess (though that was unlikely to last the rest of the day at this rate), and she vaguely recalled waking briefly when ordered to relieve herself during the night. She remembered them removing the tale from her before she slipped back into unconsciousness. The tail was back now. The symbol of her new status as broodmare.

She also did not feel as sore as she was expecting, though her body was not absent of pain. Her arms and knees still ached.. The false animalistic "heat" that Solon had induced in her was making her breasts and cunt ache to be touched and filled. Even now with Indech's cock in her she wanted more, grinding back into him in spite of herself.

  
But though she had wept through the entire ordeal the day before her eyes were not swollen or puffy, she had no marks that she could feel on her face from the harness, which had since been removed. They had left the rings in her nipples but the delicate little chain had been removed. The leash also remained, latched above her to the roof of the cage with its lead accessible from the outside. Indech's leash was gone.

She decided to try something now, though she knew it would likely all be in vain.

With one quick movement she pulled herself free long enough to turn and face her blindfolded mate, though she was still pinned beneath him. He hardly skipped a beat, plunging himself into her once more from this new position. She squirmed, resisting the urge to moan as his thrusts hit her in just the right way to send her reeling into ecstasy. Her control hanging by a thread, she reached up to cup his face, saying his name breathlessly, willing him to answer her. But the only reaction she got was a grunt as his hands reached out and forced hers down to the ground above her head. He didn't even break his stride.

"Indech please, hear me."

He silenced her by crushing his mouth over hers, swallowing her whimpering cries of pain and pleasure. When he finally pulled away, leaving her breathless his mouth instantly found the peak of a taut nipple. He tugged at the metal ring with his teeth sending a shock of pleasure from her breasts straight to her core and she felt herself tighten around him. He began alternating between tugging the little ring and suckling, and the dueling sensations finally sent her over the edge, her voice echoing loudly through the hall as she climaxed. Indech followed her shortly after, switching to her other breast and suckling hard as his seed shot up into her.

The commotion she'd made ended up attracting more onlookers, and the room slowly filled with more and more members of the court, eager to watch the Queen's breeding pair fuck each other senseless before their eyes.

As Indech began again the crowd drew closer. Leering as though they were gawking at animals at a zoo. Some of them were clearly aroused by the display. Several cocks were already protruding out from robes and trousers. Others were simply observing with a clinical gaze, casually discussing them as though they were lab rats.

"Such stamina. Even with magical assistance this is rather unheard of, no?"

"Nabatean's are not like us. They were built to reproduce at a much faster rate - its how they originally were able to conquer and populate the entire content so quickly in the old days. Solon has been tapping into their natural propensities for breeding and simply enhanced it."

"Not so simply. It took him five years to finish his work on this one, and we still have yet to see if she bears fruit." He chuckled at his own phrasing.

Five years?

"True enough. But the Queen herself created her. She carries Nabataen blood, just like her mate. Their chances are already much higher for producing a child based on that alone."

Indech was cumming again, still latched onto her breast like a child at his mother's teat. Byleth couldn't stand it, moaning herself hoarse under his ministrations. Her womb was already so full, her belly stretching out again as it had yesterday.

"See, her body wants a babe inside it. How easily she takes it all."

"Are her breasts bigger than yesterday?"

"I think you may be right."

"A side effect?"

"I rather think it intentional, don't you? All the better for bearing children and attracting her mates."

"Mates? Has the Queen tracked down another lost Nabataen?"

"Well… I have heard that if this pairing is successful she may try some other experiments."

There words made her cry out in fear, though to them it likely sounded no different from any of the other sounds she'd made in their presence. She wanted to hear more about what was supposedly in store for her but her body was shaking uncontrollably while Indech fucked another load into her.

"What's this?" Came a terrifying voice rising above the crowd of onlookers. While everyone else was able to pause, Byleth and her mate did not, could not as he resumed yet again.

Splayed out on her back Byleth found herself looking up into the cold emerald eyes of the Queen. Though her outward appearance showed nothing but calm serenity, Byleth knew better. She new what that look meant. "How did this happen I wonder? Sweet Indech, get her in the proper position and bring her to me."

Abruptly Indech's strong arms had flipped her back around so she was once again facing the floor and he was rutting into her from behind. Then slowly he walked them over to the side of the cage where her mother stood holding the end of her leash. The Queen tugged it roughly, cutting off Byleth's oxygen, and gods, but she felt her sex tighten as she did so. She would have moaned all the louder if throat wasn't being cinched closed.

"Now tell me, Indech, how did you get into such a position when it was never permitted to either of you?"

He grunted louder than normal, panting heavily over her shoulder before as he gritted out a response. "She… moved…"

Byleth's eyes went wide. She had resigned to herself that he simply couldn't speak. They had said he was mad and he'd never given her any indication that he even knew who or what she was, or cared either way. And now he was betraying her to their tormentor.

"Have you forgotten already, you silly little fool? You are nothing but a bitch in heat, a beast for breeding, and so you will be fucked like one. If you insist on acting like a little whore then I can certainly make you one. Today you will service not just your mate but every other person here who should decide to make use of that pretty mouth of yours. If I catch you behaving like anything other than what you are again, there will be a more severe punishment in store."

"He did seem to be enjoying her breasts, Your Majesty." One of the men that had been discussing her before stepped forward. Byleth thought she might have recognized him but couldn't place where, her mind too addled with sex. Aelfric was his name? "See even now he reaches for them."

Indech was indeed looping his fingers through the little loops and tugging her poor abused nipples until she tingled all over. "Hmm." The Queen mused. "Perhaps if he succeeds in getting her with child that may be his reward. He can fuck her anyway he likes. But first he must breed the little bitch."

The Queen handed her leash off to one of her guards who held her in place, pressed up against the cold iron bars. A line was already forming of men and women, waiting for their tern to have her mouth pleasure them.

It wasn't long before everything started to blur together. Some of them forced to her swallow their seed, while others preferred to shoot it onto her face or her chest. Regardless there were so many of them that by noon she was covered in the stuff.

It was around that time that the line had tapered off and the guard released her leash and let Indech draw her back, plugging her swollen cunt with his still rather stiff member. But he was spent. He had no more to give for the time being.

He was strangely gentle with her, cradling her filthy body against his, nuzzling his nose into her neck. She didn't want to enjoy it any more than she did his cock, but this was different. It was the first gentle and comforting thing that to have happened to her since she'd woken up in Solon's horrible dark chamber. Even when he licked her neck, like some kind of dog she didn't pull away, though it made her pussy tighten around him.

"Oh, very interesting. I've seen such behavior in other beasts. I would so like to discuss this with Solon himself. I've been wondering if some of his magics or tinctures encourage such behavior." He turned to his companion. "See how he protects his mate? Quite fascinating. At one point they were both quite civilized and now they truly are merely animals."

It wasn't true. She was still herself. She didn't want any of this though her body certainly behaved otherwise…

At some point she drifted to sleep. Visions of her golden king coming unbidden to her mind making her heart ache and tears fall from her eyes. How long would it be before even that part of her died - the part that could still love and dream? For she was certain it would, along with everything else that was being ripped away from her.

She was eventually woken by one of Solon's assistants. She was back in his laboratory being washed, fed, watered, and prepared to return back to her cage. They poked and prodded her while she stood there in a daze. She hadn't even realized they'd plugged her cunt up with a rod until they removed both it, and the one in her rear and ordered her to relieve herself. Once that was done her tail was returned to its rightful place, while her entrance remained open, ready for her mate.

Before they sent her back up though, they attached new adornments to her nipple rings - two rather heavy black metal bells. They linked a matching one to her collar, and lastly they strapped the harness from the day before on her head, inserting the ring Cornelia had first chosen into her mouth leaving it gaping for the next round of courtiers.

Indech was already in the cage when they teleported her back and he was on her in a second. Somehow when they teleported her it automatically linked her collar to her leash and the guard from before was tugging her back to her place against the bars where a new line of courtiers was waiting. She sat there, propped against the cold iron, her bells jingling with each thrust that came from either side of her.

"What a delightful idea. Such a lovely sound she makes now." One of the women remarked as she watched with interest.

"Her Majesty is so clever."

"And so selfless! To sacrifice her own daughter like this for the good of her people."

Now in hushed tones. "I heard she's not actually her daughter."

"Oh, I have heard the same! One of the boys that is apprenticing under Master Solon said so as well."

"Don’t be ridiculous. Those boys gossip like fish wives."

"And she had made the Little Princess her heir right up until she betrayed her and tried to steal the King away."

"All I'm saying is that they said she is some kind of Golem. She was made with the Queen's own blood, but she was not born of the Queen's womb."

"Golems aren't real you ninny."

Hearing this Byleth felt something click in her mind. It sounded right, though she had next to no idea what a Golem was. All she knew was that her mother, though at one point she did try, had never really succeeded in loving Byleth as a daughter. If she was not truly her daughter but some kind of failed creation that would explain why she had turned on her so quickly. Why she was so ready and willing to make her into a tool, into an animal, into entertainment.

She felt like weeping but apparently she'd spent all her tears the previous day. So she simply did as commanded, letting the lust take over, becoming the animal she was being molded to be.

* * *

The next four days were much the same. Byleth would wake to Indech already fucking into her until she was full of seed and he was spent. Then they were cleaned, their bodily needs seen to, and then sent back up to be bred again for the entire day.

Though the Queen had not put her mouth to use in service of her court since the first day, she did lead Byleth from her cage a few times to give her mouth or her asshole to some of her more esteemed guests visiting the palace.

One day she'd sat beneath the dinner table with a Duke's chubby little prick in her mouth until their meal was over. Then as the table was cleared he pulled her out and bent her over the table, removing her tail so he could fuck her in the ass while he carried on his conversation.

The second time her arms were bound behind her back while she was propped on top of an ambassador's lap, his cock in her rear hole as he sat in one of the palace's many lounges to discuss their plans for war against what remained of the Winter Kingdom. She had tried to listen to what they spoke of, but she couldn't focus. His hands were always busy fondling her breasts, playing with the little bells that the Queen was so fond of hanging from them, or rubbing the little nub of sensitive nerves between her slick and swollen folds. While the Duke had given no care for her pleasure, the ambassador had seemed determined to make her climax as many times as possible while he had his hands on her.

  
By they time she was led away from him his trousers had been soaked through, even though they'd plugged up her cunt both for him and the Duke. They never allowed anyone but Indech to take her there.

These were the first times she'd seen any of the Queen's other… experiments. There were other women and some men trussed up as she was, tails in their asses until the Queen's guests were ready to use them. Their nipples were all pierced just as hers were with little glittering chains and baubles dangling from them. Some of them even had piercings elsewhere which made her shudder with dread. In the cases of the men their cocks were trapped and locked away in metal cages to which only Solon or the Queen had the keys.

Many of the girls had white hair and an ethereal pale complexion. Several also had rounded swollen bellies, heavy with child. They were never permitted to speak to each other. When their eyes met they seemed so dead inside, only roused to some caricature of life when they were forced to feel pleasures they did not want.

Byleth only saw them those two times. They never appeared in the great hall. She suspected they may be kept where Solon's laboratory had been, but she'd never seen outside of that room.

On the fourth day she did not awaken in her cage but on a table in Solon's lab, her legs propped up and spread wide, while he was inserting a metal instrument into her pussy and proceeding to spread her wide. Even with this clinical cold instrument inside her she felt heat radiating from her cunt and throughout her body, causing her to whine.

"Such a pathetic thing." Solon sighed without looking up from his work. "Though I suppose it was I who made you such."

He poked and prodded her insides. As he stood up he took the swab he had just inserted into her and placed it into a tube of clear liquid, swirling it around before replacing it on his work bench. "Today we find out if you were a success, Little Princess. Very exciting. Though I suppose all the credit shouldn't go to you, your mate has been quite attentive. And you did disobey her majesty. You'll have to learn to give up such behavior."

He left her with the instrument still spreading her open and she whimpered. It was the opposite of being filled and she hated it.

"Now stop that. If you are good girl. And if your test results are positive then perhaps you shall have a reward." He turned and picked up a small, bulbous metal implement from his table. "For now I suppose you may have this. I'll return shortly."

He greased up the metal thing haphazardly and inserted into her rear hole unceremoniously. Shamefully she groaned and came just from that, her cunt leaking moisture which proceeded to drip from the instrument in her cunt down to the floor.

Solon was gone for what seemed like half an hour. One of his assistants remained but merely busied himself with cataloging various items around the laboratory, occasionally returning to inspect her and take notes, before he went about some other task. She didn't move or make a sound. She didn't want Solon's reward, but neither did she want to be punished.

The strange shriveled old mage was gone so long she was certain her channel would dry out from such prolonged exposure to the cold air. When he finally returned he marveled at how wet she was. "Incredible. No other subjects have taken so well to the "heat" as you, Little Princess."

He gave her open cunt one more look before finally removing the horrid thing. He had his assistant rub some kind of ointment into her mound and she felt it tightening up almost immediately. Still she remained silent. While Solon worked the Queen and King walked into the room. Even though her King had already seen every part of her several times over she flushed as she was still propped up on the table with her legs spread open for the world to see.

She hadn't seen him for a couple days and she had thought it a blessing, but now looking at him, all the same feelings that normally swept through her returned along with him. Her heart fluttered, her pulse raced, her traitorous needy cunt began to weep for him. He grinned wickedly at the sight of it, and even that made her heart soar.

"Well, Solon?" The Queen asked impatiently.

"Just a moment longer." The old wizard replied calmly without looking up.

The King circled the table she sat upon like a predator around his prey before stopping to play idly with the bells still dangling from her nipples. She hissed out a breath but didn't let her voice escape as Solon had directed. The King only chuckled and continued to tease her as a pool started to form on the table beneath her.

"Ah!" Solon said sounding exceedingly pleased. "We've done it, My Queen. You've done it."

Byleth watched as the Queen's face morphed from her usual mask of serenity to pure joy. She'd never seen her look that way before, for any reason. But now she looked like she was about to weep with happiness.

"Truly? Solon you must be certain."

"I am certain my lady. This test has never failed to be accurate."

While the Queen pestered Solon to triple confirm that what he said was true, the King's hand suddenly drifted to her belly, resting there gently. The movement almost startled her and she looked up to his face to find all his amusement gone. He looked… distraught. He reached up to her face, gently stroking her cheek. But she was more scared now than ever before.

This was a shadow of who he used to be. Before the Queen had twisted him into a monster, and Byleth into a mere beast for breeding. This had to be a cruel trick.

When the Queen eventually turned, her excitement still at its peak he immediately changed, plunging his fingers into her mouth roughly and forcing her to suck. "Not now, Dimitri." The Queen scolded, having not noticed the brief moment that had passed between them. "Did you not hear? We shall have our baby."

Our baby?

"I did indeed, my love." He replied as he pulled fingers free. "You deserve it, my Queen. After everything you've done. All your hard work. How should you like to celebrate?"

The Queen thought for a moment, her eyes settling on Byleth turning wicked. "Solon is she still… workable?"

"Oh yes, Your Majesty. It is still quiet early so there should be no danger if she were to keep up her duties for quite some time. Though obviously as the fetus grows we will have to take more care. But even right up until the birth, any of her holes may be used so long as precautions are taken. We've been continuing the treatments to strengthen her womb and encourage her milk. We're expecting her to start producing within the next week or so in fact."

"How long before the baby comes?" she asked anxiously.

"It is difficult to say. I know your people tend to birth their babes after about six months. But there are several factors to consider - the drugs we've been giving her, the enchantments, the fact that she is not a true Nabataen… The best I can say for now is that six months is most likely. The babe may come sooner or later than that. I can make another assessment when she is further along."

Byleth bit back a sob. He had so casually confirmed what the women from earlier had been gossiping about that it almost didn't register at first. She was not her mother's daughter, but some kind of manufactured creature.

"Oh, good! There are so many other things I'd love to see from our dear Little Princess."

"My Queen, you promised me I could play." The King whined.

"Ah so I did…" The Queen hesitated a moment. "Would you like to take her down here or up above?"

He turned back to Byleth, his wicked grin once again plastered across his face. "I should like her as my own little cock warmer for the day, if it pleases you of course." The Queen's smile matched his own as she nodded her assent. "You are too kind to me, my love. I do not deserve it." He said and leaned in to kiss her deeply.

"Nonsense. She is yours today, which gives me time to plan my celebration for tomorrow." She pressed one more kiss to the King's lips before she turned to leave. "I'll leave you both to it. Solon, give him what ever he wants."

As the King moved to speak with Solon Byleth's mind swam with the visions of her pathetic, dismal future. The Queen would have her fucked senseless even while she carried this child. Right up until the babe was born if she was not mistaken… Then her Mistress would have her baby taken away and they would start all over again. She truly believed Rhea expected to repopulate the entire Nabatean race off her alone.

When her King returned to her his expression was still jovial, but markedly less sinister. "You've done so well, Little Princess." He crooned as he stroked a line up her slick slit and found her nub, swollen and aching for him. He started rubbing her gently and methodically. More gentle than anyone had touched her there. He leaned over and took a nipple in his mouth and started to suck, moaning as more of her slick coated his fingers. The vibrations nearly sent her over the edge. He moved his mouth to pay the other one equal attention while slipping his fingers into her wet and quivering sheath. "You will be all mine today. Would you like that, Little Princess?"

She whimpered as his fingers started to fuck into her faster. "Yes, Master."

"That’s my good girl. Now cum for me." He barely had the words out before she was clenching her sex around his slick fingers. He suckled at her breasts as her orgasm rocked through her and then kissed her gasping mouth. "No one will touch you but me today.' He whispered into her ear.

With Solon still watching he brought his fingers from her cunt to her lips and had her lick them clean. She lapped at them greedily, tasting herself on him. Somehow, after everything, she still felt degraded every time her body was made to act on its own. Only this time she couldn't truly tell whether it was his will her actions through the enchantment that made her obey, or if she simply wanted this of her own volition.

A few moments later Cornelia walked in with her girls and they set about cleaning and preparing her for her day above. This time they draped her in glittering black chains, all linked to her nipples, her collar, or the two new rods they inserted into her cunt and her ass. Every movement she made set off a chain reaction that she felt in all her most sensitive areas. She couldn't decide if it was better or worse than the bells.

Taking her leash from Cornelia, he gave them a charming grin. "You have my thanks, girls."

"Our pleasure, Your Majesty." Cornelia said with a bow.

"I'll call when she's ready to be returned." He said to Solon.

"Of course, Your Highness."

"Down you go, pet." The King commanded, and a second later she was on all fours as they teleported back to the great hall.

It was already full when they arrived, though she noted the cage was empty. He walked at a brisk pace, tugging her along roughly when she fell behind - which was often. It was difficult to keep crawling on her hands and knees with her many chains swaying as she moved and two rods stuffed into her. He led her up to the dais where the Queen was already waiting to hold court. As he took his own seat he had Byleth kneel before him and take his flaccid cock in her mouth and just hold it there as they began.

The Queen began by announcing her good news.

"My beloved people. It brings me the greatest joy to announce that my dearest wish is coming true. Our sweet little breeding pair has been a success! My Little Princess is with child." As hoots and cheers erupted around the hall, Byleth's body tensed up. "Her reward for today is to warm the King's cock as you can see. But tomorrow I will be throwing a celebration for you all. The future of the Nabatean people is a little brighter today. But we shall have many more bright days to come!"

Byleth blinked back tears thinking of what fresh horrors lay in wait for her tomorrow. From time to time the King would pat her head gently as though she were some kind of lap dog, but it still gave her some measure of comfort. At the very least it momentarily distracted her from her own spiraling thoughts.

As the petitioners began to thin out the King had her start to rouse his cock to hardness. So again before the court, as she had that first day, she licked and sucked his cock until he came in hot torrents into her waiting mouth. Without being asked she licked him clean when he was finished, but when she looked up at him he was frowning, though he didn't reprimand her for doing something wrong.

After the petitioners they went to luncheon and she was shoved under the table like she had been with the Duke. But while she was under there no command came for her to take his cock in her mouth again, either verbally or through her collar. She started to panic, thinking she'd made a mistake and made to undo the ties of his trousers but he took hold of her hands and simply held them in his own until she was still. He even drew her closer to him so she could lean and rest against his legs.

She was too afraid to nod off while she waited for them to finish, still worried that this was all some kind of trick to lull her into trusting him. But she would accept this rare moment of stillness.

When luncheon was finished he took her to the smoking room and laid her face down across his lap while he discussed an upcoming battle plan with the Queen's generals. In her life before this she would have been mortified to be positioned so in a room full of men, but as it was it was no better or worse than any other position she'd found herself in. He toyed absent-mindedly with the rod in her cunt while his other hand tugged gently on the chains connected to her breasts.

He had her panting within minutes, much to the amusement of the other men. After the first few times she came they started calling out suggestions, some taking bets on whether she would cum more quickly from her cunt or her rear. All talk of battle and strategy forgotten. Their demands kept coming to play with the shaft in her ass or her cunt, or asking him to spread her open for them so they could get a better look. He did everything they asked unless they wanted to touch her. "She's mine today."

"You've had her before she was made to be the Queen's broodmare, didn't you, Your Highness?"

He nodded. He had pulled the rod from her cunt and was fucking her with his fingers.

"And?"

"And what?"

"Was she always…. So…"

"No." He said bluntly.

"Didn't you say she was a whore that first day she was paraded out for us all?"

"And now she's a different sort of whore." He plunged another finger in her and she came again. He silenced her moans by having her suck the fingers of his other hand, and by the grace of all the gods she loved it. She loved every part of him. In this moment she didn't care what he said or did, so long as he was inside her. "The bitch is pregnant and still in heat."

"She is rather filthy, but I've never seen a prettier cunt in my life."

"All of her is quite stunning really. Its such a pity she turned out to be such a wanton little thing."

"I look forward to when those tits of hers get all lush and milky. What a sight that should be."

"Is it true the Queen has some other beast in store for her once the child comes?"

She could feel him tense for a split second at the question but she doubted the others had noticed. "You'll just have to wait and see won't you? It wouldn't do to spoil the surprise."

"Nine months is a long time to wait." One of them grumbled.

"That’s not how she works. There's a chance she'll pop it out in six months or less. Nabateans are different. So stop whinging."

He didn't go to dinner that evening, instead taking her to his private rooms. Here they were completely alone, no servants, no onlookers, no Queen. He pulled her to her feet and just looked at her. His eyes held no malice or contempt, no cruelty, just sadness.

"Beloved."

"Don’t!" She'd blurted it before she'd even thought and instantly covered her mouth and dropped to her knees. "I'm so sorry, Master. I didn't think I - I'm sorry."

He pulled her back up gently and held her trembling hands. "I'm the one who is sorry, Byleth."

She shook her head. This could not be. It couldn't be real. It was one of their tricks. "Don’t please." She begged. "Please Master, if you want to fuck me then fuck me, use me, hurt me, but please don’t do this."

"I don’t have much time." He said, his voice shaking. "She's distracted today. I can speak for myself."

Byleth shook her head, disbelieving. "You are too cruel. Please just use me if that is your wish. I already give up. You have what you wanted and when the baby comes you'll take it too. Just use me and leave me, please."

He actually wept now and she faltered. "Byleth, please hear me. I need you to know I am still in here. She's made me into her creature, but I'm still here. I had thought she'd killed you or sold you. I had no idea she'd kept you all this time… making you into…"

She still shook her head but she could no longer speak. Tears were now streaking down her face. "I will get you out of here. No matter how long it takes I will free you."

"Just kill me." She spoke again without thinking. "If you are truly the man I love, then kill me, please. I don’t want to be this. A filthy, shameful creature that exists only to be fucked and bear children. Even if you were to free me what would I do?"

"Live, my love."

"I can't. She took everything."

"I'll find a way to free us both." He held her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers so softly she thought it had to truly be him, her King, her Dimitri.

"Even if you did as you say, how could you possibly want me still? Everyone will know what I am by now. She's had me servicing her entire court."

"I don't care, truly I don’t. I just want you."

"I'm not even real. She made me. I'm neither human nor Nabataen. I've been nothing but a clay puppet all along."

He pulled her to him, holding her tightly. There was no lust behind his actions, no need, no desire. Just love and sadness. But still she couldn't bring herself to return his gestures. She was too afraid. "You have always been Byleth, and that is who I love. None of this changes that. I will love you until my heart ceases beating, and the last breath of air leaves my body.

"Please don’t give me hope. That is worse than false promises."

"Do not hope then. But do not doubt that despite what she makes us do, I will never stop fighting her."

She didn't know how to respond to that. What was she supposed to do now? Instead she asked, "What is she going to do to me tomorrow?"

"I don't know… But I have an idea. She is likely going to give you to one of her other experiments…"

She started shaking and he held her tighter. "Are they truly beasts?"

"They're… somewhere between man and beast. They were all men once. But Solon and his magic have twisted them. Any non-Nabateans don’t take very well to his treatments. Some of them see some success, but the human subjects have all become sickly in one way or another. Others become beasts. You and Indech were the only true successes."

"Why did they do this to you?" she asked brushing her hand over his right eye.

He flinched, but didn't withdraw from her. "Because I would not come to heel."

"Is that how they control you?"

"I cannot say." Was not clear if that was because he didn't know, or if he could not say due to some magic preventing him. She did not press the subject.

"You should send me back."

"You want to leave me now?" The hurt in his voice was like a shard of ice through her heart.

"I never want to leave you. But if you don't… use me I'm afraid they'll know - they always seem to know. And I'm afraid if you keep touching me like this I'll lose control."

He only seemed to notice how hot her body was getting in that moment. Her thighs were dripping wet, and her nipples were hard and scraping against the fabric of his shirt. Even her breathing was coming in shorter, shallower breaths. "This is what they made me, my King. A vessel of sin."

"Let me care for you then." He pleaded.

"You'll be just like the rest of them. It doesn't matter what your intent is - if you're cruel or kind. I'll want you anyway. I have no choice anymore."

"Please stay. I rarely have this much time as myself. I promise I will take nothing, only give."

"I don't truly have a choice."

"You do. Tell me to send you back now and I will."

Her heart was tearing itself in half. Her mind was telling her this was all a trap. Even if it was not sprung today, some time in the future the Queen would turn this on her and use it to crush the last bit of light she held within her. But her heart wanted to stay with him as long as she could. She wanted him to hold her and kiss her softly like he used to, and tell her everything would be alright - that somehow they would get away from this nightmare.

She couldn't bring herself to speak the words so she just nodded.

He brought her over to the bed but she tensed as they drew near so instead he took them to the settee sitting before the large fireplace. A roaring fire was burning away and she was thankful for the distraction the flickering flames and crackling wood provided. "What if she checks in on you?"

"I'll know when she's near." He assured her as he pulled her into his lap, her back against his chest.

He just held her liked that for a while, cradled in his arms like a small child. But her body was still reacting to his touch. She was not tired enough to fall asleep and she was still wearing nothing, with two rods lodged inside her. She pressed her legs together and squirmed a little, seeking some kind of pressure to release her. When he noticed what she was doing he cursed at himself. "I'm such a fool. Do you want me to remove them?"

"I don’t know." She gasped. "I want -" She hissed as he pressed a kiss to her temple. It was so innocent, but she was too far gone. "Oh gods, please touch me."

He didn't say another word, just kissed her softly along her neck as his right hand reached down between her legs to rub between her lower lips, circling her bundle of nerves. His other hand rested over her breast, gently teasing her peaked nipple between his fingers. Her chest was so tight. She wanted this and didn't want it at the same time and it was driving her insane.

She wept as she came apart in his arms and he held her tightly while she curled herself into a fetal ball. He slowly rubbed circles around her back like her old nurse used to do when she'd had a scare or a bad scrape and needed a good cry. Byleth needed a thousand good cries. There weren't enough tears in the ocean to contain the depths of her despair.

"My sweet, love." He whispered against her hair.

"I'm disgusting."

"You are beautiful. This is not the whole of who you are. I know this." He paused. "Please know that whatever happens after this, whatever cruelty I may inflict upon you, it is not me."

"I know." She whispered against his chest. "I always knew."

He held her like that and for once she was at peace. But as with any good thing in her life it was over much too quickly.

"She comes. I will change… soon. I'm sorry, beloved." He kissed her one last time and then they waited.

She knew the moment things were different. Her body slid of the settee without her thinking of it, her hands going for the ties of his trousers and then she took his cock back in her mouth as she had when they were on the dais. He picked up the book sitting on the side table next to him and began reading as if she wasn't even there.

  
The door opened a few moments later without a knock. "Hello, my dear. Did everything go well today? I heard the generals got a little private show."

"Excellent. Our little bitch is quite proficient at this."

"I'll have to keep that in mind the next time we have a special guest, or when you deserve a treat." She leaned over the back of the settee and kissed him deeply. For once through the haze of lust and pain, Byleth felt rage bubbling up inside her.

"I have such a wonderful day planned tomorrow. Are you ready?"

He huffed out a disgruntled breath, his mood changing entirely. "You know I hate it."

"It's only for the end of the night. You can enjoy the rest of the day with everyone else. You know it is the price you must pay for all the lovely things that I give you."

"I am forever grateful to you, my love."

"That's more like it. Now finish up and send that thing away. I want you to myself tonight."

The Queen wandered off to the bed to wait while Byleth began working his cock with her tongue. It didn't take him long to find his release, though to her surprise he leaned in and kissed her right after removing his cock from her lips, his seed still coating her mouth. He made an obvious motion of tweaking her nipple - she assumed because Rhea was watching them - while at the same time moving to bite the same spot in the crook of her neck that he'd bitten before. He pressed one last soft kiss over the bite mark before she vanished and found herself in Solon's laboratory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have the shape of where this is going... Minor spoilers I guess, but I basically feel like crap for what I'm doing to these characters, so the plan is that they will make it through this (after much trial and tribulation of course).


	3. Celebration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very bad day for Byleth...
> 
> Not so great for Dimitri either...

The day of the Queen's celebration was every bit the nightmare Byleth had imagined it to be.

It began ordinarily enough. The Queen had her breeding pair demonstrate exactly what it was that had led to their celebration, and as she'd promised she allowed Byleth's blind mate to have her in whatever way he liked. It turned out he did indeed prefer to have access to her breasts, just as Solon's assistant had suggested. He was also much more gentle with her today. Something she was both surprised and somewhat grateful for.

Though his actions were still feverish, and he was still relentless, maintaining his usual level of stamina, he was simply more… affectionate. A thought that didn't quite sit right in her mind considering the context. But no touch of his was too rough, and he caused her no pain, only the pleasure her body desperately craved.

She wondered if he knew that his baby was growing inside her. If he would care if he did.

Their usual onlookers crowded around them excitedly, chattering over their rutting, providing commentary for their every action.

"He's so attentive to her breasts."

"Just a preference?"

"They seem larger again."

"Ah yes, when it was confirmed that she was indeed with child, Master Solon increased the dosage of her treatment." Then in a lower tone. "He is hoping he can induce her milk to come today as a surprise for Her Majesty."

"That will be quite a delight for her I'm sure. The perfect little broodmare."

"When does the artist arrive? I'm anxious to begin documenting her progress in earnest."

"Midweek I believe. They were held up by storms along the coast."

"Ah, a pity they will miss today's festivities."

"I'm certain there will be many more to come."

When Indech was finished he embedded himself in her as he usually did, even though there was no point now. He held her to him tightly, almost like her King had done the night before. She wanted to speak to him but she was afraid of being heard. But for once she was face to face with him so she dared it.

"Indech?" She whispered against his chest and his frame tensed. "Indech, can you speak?"

"Don't." He grit out against her hair. "They'll… punish..." He gripped her tighter, inciting the women in the crowd sigh, commenting on how sweet it was.

Byleth's emotions were conflicted. Her heart leapt at any amount of kindness she received these days, but she knew she couldn't trust it. Not even when it came to her love. But then what was she to do? If she turned away every comfort, no matter how small, she'd become a shell like the others she'd seen - nothing but dead eyes, pale skin, and a swollen belly.

She was taken away from her mate sooner than usual today. Solon and Cornelia were already waiting for her in the laboratory where servants swiftly went about cleaning and grooming her. Her hair was brushed until it shone, her face rouged and powered. Then she was decked in gold.

The rings in her nipples were removed and replaced with little golden caps that Solon smeared in some kind of gel before attaching them over each sensitive peak, covering her nipples and areola. Immediately her breasts began to tingle, radiating heat from where the metal sat upon her skin. They began to feel heavy and full and she started to pant as the women saw to the rest of her ensemble.

Cornelia sighed. "See to that filthy cunt of hers next will you. She's dripping already."

One of the women went and brought out a long wooden box from which she pulled out the longest and thickest rod Byleth had yet seen. Surely it would not fit. Even if it did what as she to do with that thing inside her? "Get on the table." Cornelia ordered and she obeyed, lying back and spreading her legs.

The woman rubbed more of Solon's gel along the terrifying implement and then began to insert it slowly. Byleth whimpered as it stretched her. "It may not seem it now, but this is a mercy, Little Princess. What waits for you tonight will be much the same." She shuddered as she somehow took it all the way to the hilt. "Cum, Little Princess, like a good girl." And she did, her channel so full, her lower lips so tight around it she thought she could die.

She was still panting when they slid her off the table to kneel on the floor, she didn't think she could stand. This didn't deter the women at all as they silently continued to drape her in a golden chain harness that criss-crossed over her chest, around her breasts, across her abdomen and around her back. They replaced the tail in her rear with a new silken gold one. Finally they strapped a gold band around her waist and latched both the harness and the shaft embedded in her cunt to it to prevent it from sliding out.

Cornelia tilted Byleth's face up to her, angling her this way and that. "Still missing something…" She muttered to herself.

"it will be filled soon enough. She's to warm the King's cock until the next event."

"Everyone likes unwrapping presents, Solon dear." Cornelia reached into another bag and pulled out a gag shaped like white lily linked by golden chains. When it was firmly fastened in place it made it look like the flower was blooming from her mouth. "Beautiful. She is ready."

"Exquisite as always, Cornelia."

A new gold leash was fastened to her collar and then they vanished from the laboratory and were back in the great hall which now had a significantly larger crowd and a make shift arena erected before the Queen and King's dais.

As she was led through the crowd on hands and knees she whimpered, feeling the over large shaft rub against the rod in her ass. The court erupted "oohs" and "ahs" as she passed, all delighted with her gold chains, her full golden tipped breasts, how well she was taking her new toy, and the lovely lily blooming from her lips. Solon led her all the way up to the King who looked down at her with cold unfeeling eyes.

"Your pet, Majesties."

"Thank you Solon, and you Cornelia. An excellent job as always."

The Queen leaned over her as she knelt before them, her smile wickedly satisfied, her eyes bright with delight. "Such a pretty picture it's almost a shame we need to put that mouth of yours back to use." She handed the leash of to the King who wound it around his fist as he drew her to him.

  
He pulled himself free of his trousers and then undid her pretty gag, smirking as strings of saliva fell down her chin. Obediently she took him in her mouth and waited as the Queen address her court.

"My first gift to you, dear friends, is a bit of sport." At the clap of the Queen's hands Byleth heard heavy foot steps funneling into the hall. "These men are our finest gladiators. They will be fighting to prove which two will compete for our Little Princess." At this the King's hand coiled in her hair tensed before soothing her scalp again. "The winners must then compete to see who can make her climax the most after six rounds."

Byleth shuddered as fear threatened to take hold. The King's grip on her tightened again, but she dared not look up at him. She didn't want to know which Dimitri it was today. "Show them what they are fighting for, there's a good girl."

On command Byleth raised her rear into the air for the men below to see. The Queen stroked her dripping folds, forcing a moan out of her, before she removed the golden tail from her ass. "See how tight she becomes? How wet she is? Hear how she moans for your cocks?"

There was grunting and chuckling. Jibes were exchanged between the warriors as they riled each other up for combat. She started trembling, blinking back tears. The King continued to soothe her scalp. The only indication that he was aware of her fear and cared enough to try and comfort her.

She could hear when the fighting started. The crowd of courtiers started shouting and cheering. They were already placing bets on which of the gladiators would be victorious.

"Who do you think will win, my King?" The Queen said taking her seat to watch the spectacle.

"The big one of course."

"They're all so big, though." The Queen sighed. "Shall we make a bet of our own?"

"If that is your wish, my Queen."

"If yours wins you may have another day with our pet all to yourself."

"And if yours is victorious?"

She paused as she thought for a moment. "Then I shall have one of my toys play with her instead."

"It's a deal then" She leaned over to seal their bargain with a kiss, and Byleth felt rage boiling up within her once again.

"Hmm… I choose the lanky one."

As the fight stretched on, she could hear some of the voices falling away, fewer sounds of metal clashing together. There were sounds of disappointment from the onlookers as gladiators were eliminated. Byleth knew things were coming to an end when she was bidden to start moving over her King's member, bringing him to hardness and then taking his spend down her throat.

He brushed his thumb across her lips, pressing a little too hard as he continued to smirk down at her. His motions were stiff, and slightly unnatural.

"What luck, my love. Our champions are the last ones standing."

The Queen took up Byleth's pretty gag and replaced it in her mouth before taking the leash from the King and leading her down to the waiting warriors. Byleth found they were both giants, though one was decidedly more lithe and sinewy than the other. "Your next task, my fine warriors. The winner shall earn his freedom."

Byleth stopped listening after that. Willing her mind away so she didn't have to be present for what was to come.

It was decided the lanky one would take her first. As soon as her tail was removed by the Queen he wasted no time. He hoisted her up by her hips, plunged himself into her ass and then set a rapid rhythm that had her coming apart in seconds. He was large, almost as large the King, and he moved just like Indech - so fast and relentless. She wasn't sure how long he was fucking into her but by the time they cut him off she had already climaxed five times by her count.

The second man, chosen by her King, was just as quick to get started. He wasn't quite as long but he was thicker than the first gladiator, stretching her rear hole painfully. But she was more full, just as her body always craved, and she came for him just as she'd come for his fellow. Despite being larger and bulkier, he was just as quick and powerful with his thrusts. He also decided to rid her of the little golden caps shielding the peaks of her breasts and the second he started toying with them she came again. They were so sensitive and tender she would have begged him to tease them, to pinch them and send her further into a frenzy if it weren't for her pretty gag.

She'd thought he was winning, but that may have just been wishful thinking on her part. By the third time she'd been passed between them she was well and fully senseless. All she knew was the pleasure she felt with their cocks inside her, their seed spilling into her.

When it was over she was a soiled, shuddering heap on the ground. The only thing she could hear was her own pulse thundering through her head, but she saw the larger gladiator's hand raised in victory while she stared blearily up at them from the floor.

But the Queen wasn't about to let her chosen champion go away completely empty handed so she had Byleth rise up, despite her exhaustion, and removed the gag once more so that should pleasure the gladiator with her mouth. She was made to take her time, cleaning every inch of his length with her tongue and then letting him plunge himself so deeply down her throat she thought she would lose consciousness.

After he'd finally spent himself, forcing her to choke down his seed, he held her face up to his, stroking her cheek affectionately. "Well done, little one." He said it like they were the same, the same type of creature, but she highly doubted it. Perhaps the gladiators had little choice in how they lived their lives, but she had none at all. She could never earn her freedom.

She collapsed onto the marble before she heard or saw anything more. One final thought came to her before she slipped out of consciousness - Her Winter King would be able to have her for another day.

* * *

She was back in the dark room below the palace. Servants were cleaning her, removing the chains, rubbing ointments and oils into her skin. Solon as standing at his work bench with his back to her. The golden rod was still firmly strapped into her aching cunt, leaving her hot and wanting. Despite having been used all day, her body a wreck, she still whimpered for relief. The sensation wasn't normally this strong but for some reason she was almost as out of her mind as she had been while the gladiators had been using her.

"Do something about that would you?' Solon said with a wave of a hand, his attention remaining on whatever was before him.

Aelfric walked up from where he'd been working and started squeezing at her breast with one hand, rubbing his fingers along her slit with the other. She arched her back and gasped out a cry of pleasure as he flicked the sensitive little nub between her folds until she was finally granted release.

But once it was over he kept on kneading her breasts, taking one in each hand. His motions were strangely detached and analytical, as though he were testing something. It didn't matter to her traitorous body however, as it started to work itself into yet another frenzy. She could sense something different about it this time, however, something else was coming forth. Her sex addled mind made the connection just as a creamy white pale started to dribble forth from both her nipples.

"Master Solon, it worked! Her milk has come in."

The dark mage did turn and come over this time. He instantly reached out and started massaging a breast himself, coaxing milk to come forth. Byleth wept even as her sinful body began to derive pleasure from it. "Incredible. She truly is transforming into our little broodmare. Aren't you, Little Princess? Lactation this early in the pregnancy. Even if induced this is unprecedented. Sit her up, we must collect it for testing."

Aelfric helped her up, still massaging milk out of her breast so there was a steady stream running down her torso. The release of it made her feel so good that her cunt was aching once more. Solon returned with two vials, handing one to his assistant. "Let us collect as much as we can before she is sent back. I want to analyze its properties."

And so they milked her until each of the vials were full and she was climaxing again. Her breasts felt slightly less heavy and some of the ache had dulled, but they continued to leak even after they'd stopped.

"Truly incredible. She's producing in such quantity already. This will make for a lovely surprise for the Queen's celebration." He called the servants back. "Clean her up but never mind the milk. I'll go first, and summon her once everything is ready. Make sure to remove that before I call for her." He gestured to the rod still in her cunt.

"As you say, Master Solon."

"Oh, and take care of this for me. It should keep her up for the rest of the night." He handed Aelfric a syringe and left in a flash of purple light.

The servants finished up their work wiping her down and replacing her tail in her rear. Aelfric took the syringe and injected the substance into her neck with a sigh. "I know you are tired, Little Princess, but you have one more task. This will keep you up and ready for your final duty today." He then bent down to removed the rod from her cunt, leaving the walls of her channel quivering in its wake. Her thighs were instantly coated in her own slickness. But they didn't wipe her down this time. He frowned before ordering her to her knees. "This will be hard on you. Try to bare through it."

She just stared at him blankly. He looked like wanted to say more but then the laboratory flickered and flashed away and she was back in her cage.

* * *

The Queen was standing before her on the other side of the bars, but Solon was in the cage with her, holding the other end of her leash. The King was nowhere to be seen.

"A surprise for you before you we commence this evening's festivities, my Queen." Solon said as he leaned over to express more milk from her still aching breasts.

"Oh my!" In an instant the Queen was inside the cage with them reaching for her other breast and giving it a squeeze. It didn't take much, her breasts had been leaking since Aelfric had first made the discovery. "It's a sign! I was right about you. You were _meant_ for breeding, Little Princess. You'll keep the baby well fed, and so many others I expect. Look at you, filthy girl. You're even aroused by having your teats milked." The Queen laughed as she squeezed harder, but Byleth only moaned louder.

"I'm sure we can see that they receive the proper attention. But now, however you have another job to do."

Both the Queen and Solon left, taking her leash with them. However she remained where they wanted her, kneeling in the centre of the cage. Turning away from her the Queen addressed her court. "My last gift for you this evening, my friends. A demonstration of what is to come."

Without further ado, there was another flash of dark purple light and then something was in the cage with her. It stood like a man and was at least a head taller than the gladiators had been, and they had already been taller than any average man. It's skin was leathery and charcoal grey all over. While it had a body that mostly resembled a man's its hands and feet ended in long sharp claws. She could see shaggy golden hair spilling from its head down its back. The only part of it that was covered was its face, shielded by a strange clay mask made to be a facsimile of human features. The mask covered its eyes and nose, but left its mouth unhidden. There were no slits or holes for eyes, but she didn't doubt that it knew she was there.

Her eyes fell to its groin where its terrifyingly large cock was standing erect and throbbing. It was big, bigger than the rod they'd left inside her all day. She wouldn't be able to take it.

"Do you like him, Little Princess. He's very special to me. My Lion. He took almost as much work as you to perfect. You'll be such a lovely match." The Queen cooed. Byleth's heart was racing. Every instinct in her wanted her to run but she could not. Her body obeyed anyone but her, so there she sat and waited. "Go on, my Lion. Take what is yours."

In a flash the creature pounced, knocking her on her back in a second, but it didn’t try to take her with its terrifying organ right away. Instead its long gray tongue snaked out from its very human-like mouth and started lapping at the milk still leaking from her breasts. Though she was horrified and disgusted, her body didn't care what creature was doing this to her, only that it made her feel good. Her back arched up as it closed its mouth over her nipple and began to suckle.

It was somehow different from having her breasts simply teased or fondled as before. There was a connection now, something passing from her to this creature and it set her body on fire. Her legs wrenched together as her body cried to be filled. But the creature simply continued lapping at her breasts, alternating between them both, bringing her to a frenzy.

When she was on the brink of begging, it released her swollen nipples, lapping at them a few more times before it lowered its head to her lower lips and began to lap at her folds. She'd never been touched like this before and she hated how much her body reacted to the way this monster was making her feel. She truly was a wanton whore… No. Even whores had some choice in who and what they let fuck them. As the Queen's breeding bitch she would let any creature fuck her and she would enjoy it.

As if it knew just how close she was, the Lion thrust its tongue between her folds and into her sheath and she lost herself to the shock-waves as her orgasm swept over her. Apparently satisfied that she was now ready for him it swept her up into its arms and pulled them both upright. Her legs hooked around its waist automatically and a sound rumbled out from his throat that might've been approval before it started to lower her down onto its waiting cock.

It took her surprisingly slowly for what she assumed was a wild thing, but that didn't prevent the pain that shot through her as it spread her wide. She gripped its leathery arms for support, her eyes watering as she continued to be spread wider on its hot, throbbing cock. It felt like an eternity before it was fully sheathed inside her. Her whole body shook trying to contain the mixture of pleasure and pain she felt from having such a thing inside her.

Its hot tongue slithered out again, lapping at her face in a sort of awkward, slimy caress before it slipped down to lap at her milky nipples. Her back arched back, her nipples still sensitive enough to make her core clench around him, and it began to move. With its clawed hands supporting her back it thrust her up and down along its length as its hips came up to meet hers. Its pace was not so fast as the others, but she was full, so full, and that was all that mattered.

It continued like this until she came for him, spasming and gripping onto him for dear life, her nails digging into its strange ashen skin. It didn't stop moving while she came, it simply kept its relentless assault on her cunt, its tongue still lapping up her milk. But she was becoming more listless and awkward to hold so it walked them over to the iron bars, propped her against them and plunged into her until its seed was bursting forth in torrents.

It came more than any of the others, even Indech, continuing to plunge in slowly as wave after wave of its spend filled her womb. As it did it suckled her breasts until it sent her into another orgasm as she took his seed and he took her milk.

She didn't know when they'd slid back to the floor but by the time she realized it the creature had already begun pumping into her again, its long tongue now licking along her slit to tease her nub. It seemed to know exactly what to do to give her the most pleasure, made all the sweeter by how full she felt with its monstrous cock inside her.

When her belly was swollen with its seed its tongue snaked out to give it a slimy caress. The usual crowd of gawkers were circling the cage again, providing their relentless commentary.

"Have you seen one of them before?"

"Only on the battlefield… This is… quite something else."

"It fucks less like an animal than I was expecting."

"This is all quite unusual actually. The other's we have observed behave more as you say - like animals. Even this one in fact is not normally so… attentive." Aelfric's voice.

"What do you think has changed it so?"

"Our Little Princess is quite special. I suspect she's been producing more powerful pheromones for quite some time now that her body is finally accepting its purpose. We will need to run some additional tests, but that seems the mostly likely explanation."

"Fascinating! That she would be able to attract a mate such as this, not even her own species."

"Its about as human as she is." Aelfric said bluntly.

"Ah yes, it is sometimes hard to forget she is manufactured. She looks so… well… I remember when she was just a sweet little thing flitting about the palace. So quiet and timid. To think she'd grow to take so many cocks and make such sinful noise."

"So the Queen wants to see if they will be a viable breeding pair once the first babe comes?"

"I believe so."

"What does she plan to do with the offspring?"

"Only the Queen knows. I suspect she just wants to see if it is possible. The creatures have sired no offspring so far. But then we did not have the Little Princess ready for them yet. Perhaps if another pregnancy is successful her offspring will prove more fertile."

The thought of Solon and the Queen using her babies, any of her babies, as more breeding experiments sent a cold chill through her and her whole body went rigid as a whimper escaped her lips. The creature writhing above her started to rumble out a low growl.

"Oh what's this then?"

The gaggle of "scholars" - she did not know what they were, but it didn't matter, she hated them all - gathered closer to the cage. Once they were within range the Lion lashed out a clawed hand to swiped at them, causing them all to yelp and back away once more.

"That is more what I had expected..."

"Hmm, territorial behavior already."

"More aggressive than the other. And this is only his first time with her."

The beast leaned down to lap at her face gently, the growl turning to a rumbling purr as it nestled into the crook of her neck and bit down. Her eyes went wide in shock. _It couldn't be…_ Her heart stopped.

"Ah, I've heard there are some beasts that bite their mates to claim them."

"Poor wretch doesn't know it will have to get in line."

Their laughter was drowned out by the creature's purr vibrating into her chest. The shock of the bite had pulled her out of her lust induced stupor if only for a moment. She wanted to take the mask off. Dimitri had said they had all been men once… Was there a man or a monster beneath? She started to reach up but it grabbed her hand and pinned it back down to the floor.

It thrust into her a few more times, more roughly than before and then flipped her around onto all fours so she couldn't reach for its mask again. It fucked her like that for the rest of the night until they were both spent, though it lasted much longer than she did. She was a limp doll in its arms by the time it was truly finished. She fell asleep there on the floor with the beast still suckling at her breasts, its limbs draped around her protectively.


	4. Geas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More plot heavy chapter and some new characters :)

The aftermath of the Queen's celebration was a blur. Byleth slipped in an out of consciousness lying on a table in Solon's laboratory. She'd wake to them cleaning her, milking her breasts, or drawing blood before she fell back into darkness. She thought she dreamed, although it was more of a nightmare. She dreamed of the creature, the Queen's Lion, taking her over and over again. Sometimes it was as it had been in the great hall, sometimes it was a little different… The beast would growl her name. It would kiss her like a man would. Once she looked up to his masked face and saw blue eyes looking back at her, tears spilling from them to rain down upon her face.

When she finally surfaced back to consciousness her cheeks were wet with her own tears, and her body and mind were exhausted. "At last. We were beginning to worry, Little Princess."

She highly doubted that. She knew they could rouse her to consciousness through all manner of means if they truly wanted to. "The celebration was perhaps too much, even for one such as you. The Queen was rather excited to show you off though. She was very pleased with your performance. And the Lion seems to have taken to you, such a promising development. All is well in the end."

All was not well. She felt emptier than she'd ever felt in her life. Like her soul had left her body. She'd feared becoming a shell like the others she'd seen, but it seemed even that too was inevitable. Though that unnatural heat was still thrumming through her body, she felt detached, far away.

Solon seemed to notice something was off, circling around to scrutinize her. He took her by the chin roughly, tilting her into the light opening her mouth to peer inside. He pried her eyelids open. Even when he started inserting implements into her mouth, her cunt, and her ass he seemed unsatisfied with her reaction - though her body grew hotter still, her lower lips wetter, and she groaned around the metal cock in her mouth as she came.

"Are you broken, Little Princess? Did that creature fuck you into submission?" She didn't respond for he didn't truly want her to answer, just continued to stare at him blankly. "We shall see how this plays out. Perhaps the Queen will be pleased, but I rather think she liked watching you struggle."

Good. At least she could deny the wicked woman this one thing, even as everything Byleth was had starting falling away.

Solon removed the instrument in her mouth, but left the other two filling her other holes. As he turned back to his work bench he spoke. "You've been here for a few days while we ran some tests and allowed your body to recover. Now that you carry the Queen's heir we will be more cautious, you will not be worked as hard as you were during the celebration, but you will continue to be worked." He paused as if expecting a sound of protest but none came.

"We have something light planned for your return since you were a good girl. You will see your mate today, but from now on you will only be given to him once a week. You'll be servicing the court and the Queen's guests until your time comes, and then you'll be given to your new mate."

Why was he bothering to tell her this? They never had before. She doubted it was a courtesy, rather he was hoping to get a rise out of her - bring back the terrified, abused creature she had been just days before, whimpering and whining as she endured each new humiliation. Instead he was rewarded with her continued blank stare. Perhaps he thought she'd flinch at being given back to another beast like the Lion, or the Lion himself, but the damage was already done.

Finished with his diatribe, he called for Aelfric who finished preparing her for her appearance in the great hall. For once they sent her up free of anything inserted inside her.

  
There were several men in black and grey robes already gathered around her cage waiting for her. Among them was a man with a large leather bound book, tins of charcoal, and parchment scattered around him. Aelfric had teleported with her and started coaxing her into positions so that the artist could observe and the robed men could discuss and take their notes. She did it all with a blank expression. Even when Aelfric used one of the metal shafts or his fingers to bring her to climax her body reacted but her mind was elsewhere.

When Aelfric was done Indech was brought to her so the gathered men could watch as he fucked her full of his spend until her belly swelled and his seed was dripping down her thighs. They were particularly pleased when her breasts started to leak once he was inside her.

Indech seemed… more desperate than usual as he took her. She wondered if he'd been worried. They normally told her so little about what they intended for her. Did they bother to tell him anything at all?

He licked along her spine and wrapped his arms around to massage her aching breasts. In spite of how empty she felt, his touch filled with her need and lust. It consumed her as she came again violently, the muscles of her sex clenching around his shaft. She cried out louder than she had all day.

"Quite a difference from earlier."

"Perhaps her body has formed a sort of dependency on her mate."

"Interesting theory. She does appear more… alert."

She tried to ignore them. Willing her mind away, into the void where what was done to her body was happening miles away, but Indech was making that difficult.

When her mate was spent he pulled her to him as he always did. Again he was more attentive, seeming to sense the change in her. He nuzzled into her neck, even pressed soft kisses to her skin, but she could only lie there and wait until they were inevitably separated again. His grip on her tightened.

She felt his mouth pressed against the crown of her head. A strange groan rumbled in the back of his throat. "Byleth…" He breathed her name against her hair, so quietly she almost didn't hear it.

At this she did stir. She didn't know how he even knew here name. No one had addressed her by it except her Dimitri when they had been alone. She was a pet, or a bitch, or a broodmare, or the Little Princess. She was not Byleth…

His hand stiffly moved to take hers, entwining their fingers together. He said her name again, but with more desperation in his strained whisper. She squeezed his hand in answer and that seemed to calm him.

"He has really taken to her. Its quite surprising." Came Aelfric's voice. "He truly was wild when he came to us. He was nearly as bad as our gray beasts."

"To be honest, if I had such a creature to warm my cock I'd be just as taken with her."

"Judging by the tent pitched in your trousers you already are."

"Perhaps if we complete our tasks well enough for Her Majesty and Master Solon shall allow us to experience what the little bitch has to offer first hand."

"Indeed some of what we are researching should be experienced first hand."

Byleth willed herself to stop listening, letting sleep take her back into the safety of its dark embrace.

* * *

She did not see the King for a week, and then he finally claimed his prize from the night of the celebration. In fact he had not appeared in court that entire time. When he did emerge he looked much the same as he did the first day they'd woken her - cold and callous, no sign that her King was still there.

He'd wasted no time, pulling her into his lap and plunging his cock into her cunt right there on the dais, forcing her to ride him while the Queen held her court with her arms bound behind her while he pulled on the leash connected to her collar so her back arched giving them all a full view of her full, aching breasts.

They'd replaced the little gold rings in her nipples and with her breasts now more sensitive than ever all it took was a simple flick of one of the hypersensitive peaks and she was cumming while she fucked herself on the King's cock, her cries of pleasure only partially muffled by her new gag. They seemed to have liked the lily Cornelia had found for her so much that they'd requested more. Cornelia had then come up with an entire bouquet of pretty flowers to fill her lips with - lilies, orchids, roses, violets… They'd settled on a blue delphinium today, "to match the King's eye".

Though she had gone a week with her mind numb, and her body merely a toy and a vessel, somehow his touch still roused her to life. She wanted to stay buried, but even in his cruelty he was drawing her out.

When she came the second time, her moans louder than the first, the Queen had grown irritated. She bid the King take his pet and enjoy her elsewhere, for they were becoming a distraction.

"Are you certain, my love? I thought you enjoyed having her on display." Byleth could not see his face but his voice sounded amused. He tugged the leash back tighter for emphasis, arching her back more awkwardly and she heard the Queen chuckle.

"While normally you are quite correct, my King, and I do so love seeing you enjoy yourself - there is much to be done today. Take her and enjoy her elsewhere to your heart's content."

The King nudged her off of his lap abruptly and she cried out that he loss of him inside her in spite of herself. Looking back she saw him locking his lips to the Queens, while she stroked his still erect length. Byleth felt the rage return in that moment, but with no outlet for it, it only served to make her heart twist and her body hot with a different sort of heat.

When they were done with their own public display the King tugged her along and out of the great hall. Once they were free of most of the rabble he pulled her to her feet but continued to lead her through the halls and corridors silently. She quickly recognized the path they took was leading them to the gardens. However, when they arrived she found they were not as she remembered them.

Her beautiful Summer Garden was now overgrown and wild with weeds and rough foliage. The lovely garden she had tended by hand and with her magic since she was just a girl was now as much of a mockery of itself as she was and something twisted in her heart again. For a Summer Queen to let the gardens to fall into such a state was unheard of. Though, Byleth supposed with all the wars Rhea was waging, coupled with her obscene experiments, she must no longer have time for it.

He pulled her into a secluded area, well hidden from anyone who may happen across them, though by the looks of things people rarely came to this place, if at all. He unbound her arms and wrapped his cloak around her, then raised his hands to cup her face before going to remove the gag. She had not been permitted any form of clothing since Solon and the Queen had turned her into their broodmare. Now it felt strange, almost wrong. The cruelness in his eyes was gone, replaced with despair and regret.

She almost dreaded these moments as much as she hoped for them. The joy she felt when he returned to his true self forever in conflict with her instincts to distrust this as a trick. Not to forget that her mutated body now craved his touch, no matter which version of him was in control. It was like she was tearing herself apart from the inside out. Unable to speak or act - for what could there be for her to say that she had not already said the last time - she simply stood before him and waited.

"Beloved…" He breathed the endearment against her skin as he leaned closer to rest his forehead against hers.

"My King…"

"Do you despise me now?"

"I could never. But…" He pulled away to look into her eyes as he waited for her to continue. "How long before we break? I'm so tired. That thing… You were not there and I cannot bear to say. Perhaps it is better you were not there to see."

He tensed, his grip on her tightening. They didn't speak for a while. It felt like being caught between states of being - the brief life she once had when she was just a girl and in love, and the reality she was now trapped in, with a body that no longer felt like it was hers and no free will with which to navigate her life.

"I'm failing you, aren't I?" he asked, his voice wracked with anguish.

"How you can fail me when you are as much a prisoner as I am?"

"You asked me to end this and yet I cannot, the geas she has on me prevents it." He gasped out a breath and squeezed her tighter to him. "Truthfully, though, I don't think I would ever be strong enough to do ask you asked that day. But that means I leave you to your torment, and so I'm as much of a monster as she is."

"You aren't. You couldn't be." She whispered against his chest. She was getting so warm… her hands shook.

"You don’t know everything she's had made me do. The things I've done to you… there's so much more… And she is becoming more paranoid. I find I'm able to return to myself less and less. She is ever molding and remolding me into her creature."

She reached for him then, framing his face between her hands, trying to soothe away some of his sorrow though her own was threatening to spill over. What a wretched pair they made. "There must be something. Is there no one from the Winter Kingdom that can be reached?"

"You were gone - where ever she kept you - for a long time, my love. My Kingdom is a shadow of what it once was. My countrymen do not know if I'm alive or dead and it hardly matters as I cannot help them. The men that escaped the Queen's massacre that night five years ago were all hunted down and executed, or are in hiding. Rhea keeps the palace locked down. No one may enter without her express permission and those that are permitted are watched closely. She has spies throughout her Kingdom and mine. She's been tearing my land apart one piece at a time while I watched."

A tear trickled down from Dimitri's one blue eye and she kissed it away. He turned his head and caught her lips with his and she let out a soft whimper. She wanted him, or her body did… it was getting harder and harder to tell the difference. Seeming to sense her internal struggle he pulled away and pressed a kiss to her brow before continuing. "I have heard that there is supposedly a resistance, though information is scarce. She's been sending her forces to quell them for months now."

He pulled away looking at her meaningfully. She conjured every ounce of self control she had remaining in her to focus on his eyes, his words. He was trying to tell her something without saying the words out loud. Could he have been in contact with this rebellion? Was speaking of it out loud too dangerous? "I will never stop fighting, no matter how long it takes." He whispered against her lips.

She couldn't control herself. Her tongue darted out to lick across his lips. Beast… You are a beast… But he returned her gesture with warmth and love and she calmed a fraction. She just needed to focus on his words, on what he was trying to communicate to her. She was more than these urges, she had to be…

"Be careful." she managed to grit out. "If anything were to happen to you…"

"I will take no unnecessary risk, but everything we do, every moment like this will carry risk, Byleth." She closed her eyes, relishing in the sound of her name on his lips, willing it to ground her.

"Please be careful, my love. I won't survive this if she takes you from me. I can't…"

He kissed her again and this time she couldn't control herself. Her tongue darted out again to dance with his. At the same time she started to claw at his shirt. He was always clothed when he was with her but she wanted to feel him. He let her pull his shirt open so she could press herself into him, skin to skin. The sensation sent rippling shivers throughout her whole body. She hardly noticed as he tipped them over so they were splayed out on the grass, his cloak shielding her naked body from the cold ground. She'd been too busy drowning in the feel of him pressed against her.

It wasn't until he asked her if she wanted this that she froze. She truly didn't know anymore. Her love for him was now so irrevocably entwined with the creature they'd made her into. She wanted him so much it hurt. More than any of the others, always more. But these feelings were tainted. Byleth covered her face with her hands and wept, even as her body grew hotter and needier by the minute.

  
Her King hushed her told her it was alright, but it wasn't. It would never be alright again. "I’m sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She rambled over and over.

He gently took her hands away from her tear stained face, and kissed her knuckles softly before leaning in to press his lips to hers. "Never apologise to me for any of this, beloved." She tried to shake her head in protest. He may be the Queen's prisoner, her creature, but she was irredeemably despoiled. He hushed her again with another kiss. "I will not be able to stay like this. Eventually we must both return. I'd rather love you as myself, than as her creature."

The King kissed her lips, her brow, her cheek, the hollow of her neck. Each kiss was so chaste… "Tell me to stop and I will, Byleth. I only wish to give you whatever comfort I may, while I can."

As before she couldn't say no. With her assent he kissed a trail from her lips down the column of her neck, over each soft breast - stopping to briefly tease each peaked nipple with his clever tongue before moving down again, across her abdomen to her aching sex. His tongue lapped at her folds, already wet lust. The things he did with this tongue - teasing the bundle of nerves at her apex, thrusting into her - all until she came apart beneath his ministrations, body quivering as she called his name. In a dark part of her mind she'd been trying to lock away, memories of the Lion resurfaced. The things it had done with its tongue had not been so dissimilar…

There had been a moment when its teeth were buried in her neck that she had thought it had to be him… But she didn't want to think of that now, didn't want to ruin an already tainted stolen moment with her love.

He returned his lips to hers, taking her mouth as he'd taken her cunt and she tasted herself on his tongue. Heat exploded in her core and she let out a desperate keening sound as she reached for his trousers. "Oh gods, I need you. Please."

He had himself out of his trousers and thrust into her in the next moment, and a moment after that she was moaning his name into his shoulder as she came again.

He silenced her cries with a kiss and continued to thrust into her slowly and rhythmically. The King didn't fuck her. He wasn't rutting or breeding her. He was loving her. A fact that should have brought her joy but she could only weep as she felt her climax building again. Her King kissed her tears from her cheeks, caressed the back of her neck with gentle hands. She felt his lips at the corner of her neck and shoulder, and she shivered when she felt teeth graze her skin, then his tongue slide across the place where he had taken to marking her.

Again memory of the Lion came back unbidden… It cut through the haze and the heat like smoke in the air. She wanted to ask him, but what would that achieve? Would it improve things if she were to be given back to the creature to know it was him? What if it wasn't him? Would that make it worse?

Either way now was not the time. Dimitri had started to lose the steadiness to his rhythm, pumping into her harder and faster than before. His arm looped around the back of her shoulders so his hands could cup her face, hold her still so their eyes were locked on each other as his last shuddering thrusts spilled his seed into her spasming channel and they climaxed as one.

Her legs remained locked around him as they shuddered through the aftermath. She didn't want to let him go and have them go back to being their own wretched doppelgangers. For a while he seemed content to stay there in her arms. They didn't need to speak. There was nothing more to say.

Eventually he did pull them to their feet, taking his cloak from her shoulders, the look in his eye growing distant. He picked up her gag but did not replace it before took her leash and lead her back into the palace. Her mouth would be filled with something else soon enough.

* * *

By the end of the first month she was starting to show, her belly protruding out, much to the delight of the Queen and the persistent throng of mages and scholars that observed her almost daily.

Into the second month she was seeing Indech less and less, and given instead to the Queen's court more often. She started to worry for him, uncertain how much of it was her own genuine concern and how much was triggered by how Solon and his assistants had been grooming the both of them to want and need each other.

To her great dismay the pregnancy had not impeded her body's need or sensitivity. The barest hint of stimulation would send her into an orgasm. She'd provided hours of entertainment at a time for the Queen's favourites - for she was only ever given to her favourites - as they teased and toyed with her to their heart's content.

As she got farther along, the pregnancy brought with it other changes as well. Chief among them was Solon's new assistant. At some point some one must have realized that Solon's cold and clinical manner with which he treated her was not enough to carry her through this. Her emotional state and stress level was a wreck, and they had started to wean her off most of the treatments and stimulants they'd been giving her to keep her tame and malleable for fear that they would affect the baby. This in turn lead to her being more difficult to control. And so, it was thought, a softer touch may be required.

This new assistant was soft spoken, and gentle, and a woman. One of the few women she'd seen with any sort of authority among Solon's people besides Cornelia. Mercedes treated Byleth like an actual person whenever she was with her. A fact that she could see was irritating everyone with perhaps the exception of Aelfric who, while he had always followed Solon's orders without question, he had occasionally given her cause to think he wasn't always comfortable with all of them

Mercedes was just… normal. It was like she didn't even realize what sort of nightmarish landscape she now inhabited. Byleth would have distrusted her more if it weren't for the fact that she was persistently contradicting Solon, and on rarer occasions - much rarer - the Queen. But she relayed her assessments without stuttering, emphasizing the health of the baby or even Byleth.

"You must understand." She said pointedly to Solon, while he, the Queen, the King, and Aelfric were gathered around for one of their little checkups. "If you keep pushing her, her stress levels will increase, and both the mental and physical strain will affect the pregnancy. She could go into early labor, which would be bad enough, but she may also not survive the birth."

Byleth could see all of them tense. The King was doing his best not to look at her, but his body was rigid as a board, and his fists were clenched at his side.

While she had once asked the King to put her out of her misery, now that her belly showed the evidence of the life inside her the thought made her sick. Though the circumstances that had created it were horrific, the life inside her was innocent. They had asked for this no more than she had. But until now she hadn't thought about the baby surviving the birth while she may not. Perhaps that would be the best scenario… They could live and she would be free.

"This is not just about entertaining my subjects." She Queen grit out. "This is what I created her for. It is her punishment for he betrayal of the life I gave her, the ungrateful wretch. She will continue her duties because that is what she is, what she is meant for."

"Then you must limit sending her out there further if you insist she is to continue. My understanding is that you want more Nabatean children. You want to continue this experiment beyond this first pregnancy. You will not be able to do that if she dies." Despite her characteristic soft and even tone, Mercedes was unyielding.

"She is no ordinary girl. She was created, not born, and has already proven more resilient than any of the other subjects." Solon retorted.

"That may be, but she is still a living being, carrying another living being inside her. She can be hurt, become ill, and die. You are testing her limits and once you reach them the results could be fatal and irreversible. You will have no other subject such as her. I assume that what ever was done to create her has not been reproducible, otherwise she would not be the only one." Byleth, though she'd been despondent and detached for the past two months, always perked up as Mercedes continued lecturing her tormentors. It was one of the few things that could give her even a modicum of something that could be considered happiness. Both Solon and the Queen looked like they were ready to rip Mercedes's head of. "I can only advise you, Your Majesty. But you should know she carries not one, but two. Which means her body will be under even more stress."

"You are certain?" Solon asked almost sulkily.

"I verified it before you arrived. There are two and they are growing fast. At this rate she may deliver before the originally estimated six months."

The Queen's seething abruptly dissipated. She was not as overcome with joy as she had been the day the pregnancy had been confirmed but she did pause. "Very well. Twice a week she will serve my court. Nothing… rough. If we need to reduce her time further we shall until her time comes. I will not allow her to forget what she is. But you are right, I will not risk my children." Then turning to Solon, "See to it that this is done. Make sure she is watched carefully. And prepare my sweet Rafail. He can be quite gentle when necessary."

"What will you require of him, Majesty?"

"He'll keep our Little Princess occupied, of course. She'll have much more time on her hands, I need to make sure she's still put to good use."

* * *

In the following months the Queen, though she had acquiesced to Mercedes's recommendations, could not resist ensuring that Byleth knew her place as the lowest of the low within the Summer Palace. It was true that she was only given over to members of the court twice a week. They would use her to warm their cocks, or they'd sit her in their laps and suckle the milk from her breasts as they socialized. They would bend her over and fuck whichever part of her took their fancy - this though, was becoming something of a challenge as her belly continued to grow making the whole thing awkward.

The rest of her time, however, was spent with Rafail, the Queen's favourite pet. Byleth had seen him once before, his cock in a cage, and a mask covering his half his face. He was a very beautiful man, though his face was always covered remained hidden. He had long and slender, but strong limbs, piercing blue eyes, and lustrous platinum hair. Outwardly he looked practically angelic. But Byleth never saw anything of the angel in him. She never saw anything in him at all beyond cold obedience.

Most days she was his cock warmer, on display for the Queen and her subjects. But the Queen simply couldn't hold back from pressing her luck. She had him milk her, or fuck her, or just lead her around the court by her leash for the courtiers to grope, pet or squeeze. She was the pet's pet, the lowest anyone could fall.

As time went on she saw the King less and less. Not only had he been unable to steal her away and keep her to himself, but he no longer seemed to be attending court as much as used to - hardly at all in fact. When he did make an appearance he rarely even looked at her. Now every time he did his gaze was blank and a small piece of her heart chipped away each time. Her only respite was returning to Mercedes.

When she was four and half months into the pregnancy the mage had managed to convince Solon to setup a private room in preparation for when Byleth's time came. In the mean time it would serve as a means to help calm her when the court was done with her for the day. Really though, Byleth had begun to suspect it was a means for Mercedes to speak freely with her.

Mercedes had begun to ask her things about her life before Byleth had ceased to be Byleth. What sort of things the Queen had taught her, what she knew of the magic that she'd once possessed. Byleth could tell her very little. Her "mother" had taught her the basics of magic - what it could do, how to keep it in check, but nothing more. She'd primarily used it tend the garden, heal wounds, or aid with simple tasks. She'd never been called upon to put it to greater use.

"Why do you ask? Solon never cared."

"I'm not Solon. It could affect the babies." Mercedes replied coyly.

"The Queen would know, you can ask her what they may inherit from me if you're interested."

"I wanted to know about you."

"There is nothing worth knowing."

"I doubt that." She always remained cryptic. Byleth was uncertain if she was doing it to protect herself, or agitate her. Still she found she kept opening up to the strange woman.

After a brief moment of silence between them she spoke again. "Do you know… where the King has been?" she asked tentatively.

Mercedes regarded her carefully before answering. "I believe the Queen has him hunting down insurgents."

"I see." That explained where he was, but not the change in his demeanor.

"Do you still love him then?" Sometimes Mercedes would come out and ask these blunt questions that took Byeth by surprise.

"I still love the man he was when we first met." She replied with a coy answer of her own. Mercedes was not what she seemed but she didn't know what that actually made her.

A half smile curled up the corner of the mage's mouth. "You should try not to worry about such things. You're still quite stressed. And you're quite far along now. I've never seen a pregnancy progress this quickly before… You may be due within a few weeks now. I'm going to recommend they stop sending you out there entirely."

A thought came to her then, a last ditch effort to gain some kind of salvation. "Mercedes… If things go wrong don't save me. Save the babies, but let me go. Please, I beg of you…"

Mercedes sighed, took up a blanket and wrapped about Byleth's shoulders. "I don't think that will be possible, do you? She will be present the entire time." Her tone was not mocking or cruel, just her usual calm, reassured tones. "You are stronger than you think you are, Byleth."

"What does it matter when my strength is not my own?"

"Endure. There will come an end to this."

Byleth turned to watch the mage more closely. This had to be yet another trick…

"Why did you come here?"

Mercedes face lit up. It was a little unsettling. "I came to help people."

"Like you help me?"

"Just so. And more." Cryptic as ever.

"The babies will come. She'll take them away and give me to that creature, or one like it, until there are more babies. She'll take them all away until I have nothing left to give. What end do you foresee for me that would bring me any kind of peace after all of this?" Her body was shaking. She was tired of riddles and double speak. She wanted answers… She wanted this to end…

"I can't ask you to trust me. But know that I am a friend."

Byleth couldn't help but laugh. The King had spoken of such things too, and yet where was he now? Mercedes frowned, and took Byleth's hand gently, trying to calm her, but the laughter kept coming, until her eyes watered and her ribs hurt. Mercedes left her to brew her something to drink. By the time she'd handed her a cup of steaming hot liquid that smelled of herbs, her fit had mostly subsided but she still felt strange, like she was floating outside her body. Every day seemed to bring her further and further away from herself.

Her mind drifted to her dismal future. She thought about the grey beasts, though she had only ever seen the one. Were the others more terrible than the Lion? Who were they, who had they been? Since the Queen had brought out Rafail she had begun to wonder if he was the Queen's Lion? There were similarities… the mask, the hair. If her dreams were to be believed his eyes as well. She had seen two blue eyes staring back at her in her dreams of the beast, where her King now only had one…

"Do you know anything about the grey beasts?" She asked abruptly.

Mercedes raised an eyebrow. "Only a little. I have seen them only a handful of times."

"Are they trapped as beasts or does she return them back to their original forms?"

"They are beasts when she needs them to be."

"How many are there?"

"Now? I believe she's successfully created dozens."

"Have you seen the Lion? Are they all like that one?"

The mage frowned again. "For the most part. They each have their own unique characteristics, but they are relatively similar in size, strength, intelligence, and so on." She came to take the now empty cup from Byleth but held her hands in hers once more. "You must try not to think of it, it's distressing you."

"You think I don't try to forget this nightmare? As if I want to be conscious of the things they have done to me?"

She could feel the same madness that had taken her just moments before bubbling up again. Her chest was tight and she was breathing too fast. Mercedes held her hands tighter, her voice remaining even as she tried to calm her. "Please, Byleth. Try to be still."

Mercedes took a seat next to her and pulled her into an embrace as if it were nothing… As if she were an ordinary girl not a filthy creature that wasn't worthy of affection. Mercedes soothed her hair and continued to whisper calming words that didn't quite register over the buzzing in her ears. But the sound of Mercedes's voice was pleasant as it always was, and Byleth was able to close her eyes and eventually drift away temporarily forgetting who and what she was.

* * *

Byleth woke to the sound of hushed voices. Her body felt leaden, her mind sluggish. As the fog in her mind cleared she strained to hear what was being said.

"I'm worried. She's been getting more and more unstable and they will not heed my warnings." As soft voice, gentle.

"Make them listen." Harsher tones, male, more frantic.

"The Queen is too cruel. She wants the babies, but she wants to make her suffer almost as much." A brief pause. "She asked that I let her die if the birth goes wrong..."

There was a strangled sound, louder than a whisper. "This needs to end. I can't leave her like this."

"Things are only getting more difficult with the Queen sending you to hunt us now. We need more time, more men."

"How long must she wait for you to be ready? Has she not endured enough?"

"You should know just how difficult it is to lift the geases. We're trying but…"

"But what?"

"She doesn't know what her magic is. She thinks its just mundane. Even if she can be freed she'd need to be shown how to use it."

"Could you show her?"

A sigh. "Maybe? There may be time after the babies come…"

Byleth groaned involuntarily as she tried to adjust herself on the bed. The bigger her belly got the more quickly she became uncomfortable in any position, constantly having to readjust. The voices hushed. A moment later a candle was lit and brought over to her cot. She couldn't help but flinch back as she saw the King's face in the dim orange light. But his eyes were different again now. He'd seen her reaction to him and instead of cold indifference she saw pain pass over his features.

Still, he knelt down on the floor next to her, setting the flame down and taking her hands. She managed not to flinch away from his touch, but she was wary. Her head was still swimming. Whatever Mercedes had given her must have been a sedative.

"Beloved…"

She didn't respond. Her eyes darted to Mercedes standing behind him, concern written all over the other woman's face.

"Please, Byleth. It is me."

"He came when I informed them you were having panic attacks. They don't know he's here." Mercedes explained.

"My love." He reached to stroke her cheek gently but she felt like a caged animal. They kept asking her to wait, stay strong, keep fighting but she had almost nothing left. "Will you not speak to me?"

"Why did you come?" It was all she could manage. "Why now?"

"It's been difficult… I would have come sooner, but she keeps sending me away from the palace." he said.

"You're permitted to leave?" She couldn't help the bitter tone in her voice.

"Only while leashed. She has me hunting my countrymen…"

"Are you going to tell me to hold on a little longer? Keep believing? Wait for you to come save me?"

"Please don't do this, Byleth. I know how much you suffer. Please don't give up. I need you."

The pain in his voice twisted in her heart and she could no longer remain obstinate against his kindness. "I'm tired, Dimitri. And every day that my time draws nearer I'm more afraid of what will become of them… I can't do this again. I won't survive it."

"We have… Something… More substantial than anything we've come across so far. Did you hear any of what we just spoke of."

She nodded. "Something about my magic."

"Yes. It may be the key to freeing all of us."

"It's Nabatean." Mercedes interjected. "Which means it is attuned to the geases that allow the Queen to control you."

"How can you know for certain? You only just arrived. You never saw me use it."

"I tested your blood. Blood tells all. Your magic is definitely Nabatean. The Queen is suppressing it with the collar but you do possess the same power she does." Mercedes explained.

"What good is this if I cannot use it?"

"That is our next problem to tackle, but we now know that they can be broken."

"I do not understand… How is it possible to free myself if my power is locked behind a geas, but is also required to break the geas."

"For you it's all in the collar. My theory is that it is added protection against your magic. It was forged by Solon and the Queen. If we can find a way to remove or even damage it you may be able to use your magic again."

"In the mean time I am the court's whore and the Queen's broodmare."

"You are no one's." The King growled.

"What now then, my King?" she sighed.

"We find out how so to deal with the collar." He continued to brush his hand across her cheeks. She wasn't sure if it was the after effects of the tea Mercedes had given her, or simply her haggard state of mind, but for once his touch elicited no response. "Will you be able to wait until the?"

"The choice is not really mine. Do what you must… But be careful, my love."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any one has been wondering why Indech of all people - its because I saw fanart of him and he was hot and I've had brain worms ever since...
> 
> FYI - From here on out, things are probably going to veer more towards plot, and the smut will ease off a bit (it won't vanish entirely).


	5. Thorns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise Dimitri POV for yooouuuu <3

Mercedes's attempts to teach Byleth about her magic yielded mixed results. Her magic had been dormant for over five years as the Queen and Solon worked to twist her into a new more docile and controlled shape. Before that her training and education were minimal. She'd never been told her magic was anything different from anyone else's. She had been told hardly anything about Nabateans - for her protection, as her mother had said.

  
The mage had asked her to try and remember more ambiguous things about her magic. How it had felt? Did it feel like she was drawing energy from any place in particular, such as the earth, the sky, or something more abstract like light and dark? Had she taken to anything particularly easily? Was there anything that she had difficulty with?

At this point, though it had been less than a year since she'd woken to her new and terrible life, she hardly remembered what came before. It was as though that life had belonged to a completely different person. She told Mercedes of how she'd used her magic in the gardens, or to heal small wounds. She vaguely recalled thinking that because she seemed to have an affinity for earth magic that it must have something to do with where she drew her power from.

When she tried to conjure even the memory of it now pain arced through her originating from the collar making her head throb. Mercedes had tried to reassure her that this at least meant that it was still there, though it was being suppressed. As with most new discoveries, this gave her mixed feelings. She did not want to entertain even a modicum of hope, and yet all this talk of rebels and magic was starting to chip away at the walls she'd erected to close herself off. She needed to temper this. She was still a prisoner and still pregnant, and still at the mercy of her treacherous body…

Her time was coming soon. She could tell without requiring confirmation from Mercedes. Each day brought with it more dread. It distracted her from Mercedes's attempts to jostle her memories, from her time at the court, from wondering where the Queen was sending her Winter King.

If she had hoped for one thing it would be that he could be there when the babies finally came, though she knew that was the least likely thing to happen. Having Mercedes there would be a comfort, but having the Queen and Solon there would be a nightmare. All she wanted was one person there who loved her before she lost her little ones…

* * *

Her water broke in the middle of the night much to her great relief. She'd been terrified that it would happen while she was with the court and she would be forced to give birth there in front of all of them, screaming and bleeding on the floor of her cage for all to see. In this at least she'd been fortunate.

Mercedes came right away as soon as she called for her, and soon after that Solon and Aelfric and a number of other assistants joined her. The Queen was notified but told to wait as it would still be several hours before it was time.

Byleth could feel the panic rising in her as soon as the first contraction came. She tried to tamp it down but Solon was hovering around, discussing when they should take the babies from her. How long should she need for recovery? Should they let her feed them or simply take them and let the Queen feed them from the milk they'd taken from her already and stored away? Mercedes started to look concerned, commenting that contractions were progressing much too quickly.

"How many times must I say it, she is not human, Mercedes. Her physiology is different."

"She is extremely agitated, Master Solon, and only getting worse. And with all due respect, having the men who tormented her for months present, discussing how to further torment her now, is not helping matters."

The wretched old man scoffed. "She's known this day would come since we woke her."

"That may be, but we cannot control her emotional or mental state. Could we not refrain from some of this… talk for now? I’m concerned about the safety of the babies." Byleth could hear the desperation in the other woman's voice. Solon did pause, looking again to assess the state of his subject before eventually nodding silently.

It was far too late for them to give her any concessions however. Her heart was racing, and her breathing too fast. After about an hour her contractions were already coming faster, each one more painful than the next. Mercedes tried to soothe her, wiping the sweat from her brow, giving Byleth her hand to squeeze, whispering calming words. She hardly heard them over the sound of her own pulse drumming through her head.

Mercedes continued to check how dilated she was and finally came away looking stricken. She took Byleth's hand after she'd suffered through another hour of contractions and told her with a slight vibration in her voice that it was already time to push. Gathering up what little fortitude she had remaining in her she used it to block out everything else around her but the sound of Mercedes's voice. She followed her gentle instructions, pushing when she needed to, though pain wracked her entire being, and her pulse was still thundering through her veins. She screamed through the entire ordeal until her first baby finally slid out.

Mercedes collected it in a downy blanket, clearing the muck of birth from its face. She waited for what seemed like eons to hear its first cry, but it did come. Settling the child on the bed before her, Mercedes then went right back to work, coaching Byleth through getting her second child out. Her second baby was much easier and soon its cries joined in chorus with its sibling's.

She hadn't really noticed when the Queen had arrived. She'd heard her voice between her own screams and gasps of pain as she pushed. Rhea came into view as Mercedes pulled the second babe into her arms to swaddle and clean. Both were still connected to her by their umbilical cords. The Queen didn't even wait for them to be cut before she took one in her arms and started cooing at it as though Byleth weren't lying right there in a puddle of her own sweat and blood.

Everything felt like it was happening a long distance away. She watched them rush about her as if through a distorted lens. She could tell everyone in the room, barring the Queen was distressed but she didn't know why. She was tired and cold. Her body started to tremble, shivering violently, and it only got worse as she saw them cut the umbilical chords linking her to her children.

Mercedes said something in irritated tones to Aelfric as she took the other baby and handed it to Byleth. She took it weakly and instantly her shivering abated. "Boys." Mercedes whispered as she leaned over to wipe the tears and sweat from her face. But the tears were soon replaced with fresh ones as she looked down at his little red face. He had a shock of dark green hair, and even though he was just a small, wrinkly little thing she could see he looked just like his father.

"There's too much blood." she heard in hushed voices.

"See to it now, or she'll die."

"She needs the babes back in her arms. She was much worse without them."

"Her Majesty will not like that…"

"Then she shall have to be content with these children being her sole Nabatean heirs."

A sigh. "Very well."

Byleth didn't look up from her son's face. She couldn't bear to see Rhea's cold jewel-like eyes scrutinizing her, not now. There was murmuring from the far side of the room. Rhea's voice raising in anger. But she was eventually calmed. A few moments later Mercedes returned with the other baby and placed him in Byleth's arms we well.

Byleth simply continued to weep, but now that the three of them were reunited the babies stopped crying and settled against her chest, their warmth seeping through her skin and filling her with a sense of calm that seemed alien to her after the strenuous ordeal of their birth. Still she felt weak. It was all she could do to keep her arms wrapped around them.

"Byleth?" She blinked blearily up at Mercedes who frowned down at her with concern.

She wanted to plead with her again to let her go. If she was dying then good, she could go - please let her go... But she said nothing. Solon's assistants swarmed her and she felt the warm hum of magic creep into her body as they started to work to save her.

As her mind drifted she thought of Dimitri. She wondered where he was, what sort of new horrors the Queen was inflicting on him. She wondered if he'd be able to look on her children and love them as she now did, or would he resent them for everything else that they represented. Her heart ached so much she thought her chest might split open.

At some point the babies wriggled out from where they'd been slumbering to each latch onto a breast and started to suckle. The Queen was not pleased.

"We can't bring them away now, Your Majesty. If they are hungry they need to feed." Mercedes said gently.

"I don't want them growing attached." She grit out. Byleth continued to avoid her gaze.

"They will need to feed from their mother for at least a while."

" _I_ am their mother."

"Apologies, my Queen. It may take time for them to adjust to milk from the bottle. It would be safer for them to take her milk directly for a time." Somehow Mercedes still remained calm in the face of the irritable Queen.

"They will be weened off of her as soon as possible, understood?"

"Understood, Majesty."

"We need to clean things up here, change the sheets and take care of the afterbirth now that she is stable. I will bring the children to you as soon as I am able, Your Highness."

"Good, see it done." She did not say a word to Byleth. Indeed she hardly even acknowledged her presence beyond the fact that the babies needed her for their milk and she apparently needed them to help her cling to life.

When the babies were finished she was permitted the hold them only a moment longer before they were taken from her and ferried off without a word. She was then hoisted up rather unceremoniously and taken to an adjoining room where the assistants bathed her and even placed her in a gown, though she was almost too distraught to notice. When they returned her to her room the bloody linens had been removed and replaced. Mercedes was waiting for her and helped her settle down.

She had expected this moment to be one of her lowest if not _the_ lowest, but this was far worse than she could have predicted. She began shivering again as Mercedes tucked her into the bed like child. She handed her a mug of hot liquid and settled down next to her. "Try and drink it down, Byleth. As much as you can." She did as she was told but the feeling of wrongness remained.

Mercedes waited until they were alone to take her hand. "This isn't over. You shall have your retribution."

She didn't respond. Just held the warm mug to her chest and waited for sleep to take her.

* * *

He was nothing but muscle, sinew, teeth and claws. Rage and pain and death. He tasted blood and ash.

He killed what they bid him to - soldiers, mercenaries, mages and sorcerers. Men, women and children.

They sent him hunting and he would hunt the Winter people, _his_ people.

When he was far enough away, his lead not held so tightly, he was sometimes able to regain control. He would let his people live and kill the soldiers of the Summer Lands, leaving nothing but bloody smears for their comrades to find. It was impossible to tell whether the gory mess what ever even human at all, let alone which side they were on.

By now the rebels of the Winter Kingdom knew to look out for him. They knew when to flee and they knew when to it was safe to stay and relay their brief messages. Thanks to Mercedes, the leaders of the Winter Rebels knew what he was. It had not been easy to convince them however. He'd taken many lives. Now however, they'd seen him demonstrate restraint, even leave them messages of his own. They did not _know who_ he was. Just that he was a prisoner of the Summer Queen, and when he was free to, he served their cause.

Their forces were gathering but they still needed time. The Queen was doubling her efforts to stamp out their efforts and it slowed things down, forced many of them back into hiding. More of the grey creatures were being sent north, and more still were being created in Solon's lab and deployed to help with the hunting.

He had been the beast for months on end. Despite finding moments where we could at least partially return to himself, the hunting and killing was ceaseless. He started to forget what it was to be a man. Even in the brief moments where he was more himself than beast he could not speak, could not return home. He was still trapped.

Eventually, he was summoned back to the palace. Locked in Solon's crypt of a laboratory until they allowed him to return back to himself, he was isolated with nothing but his own thoughts and the pain that wracked his body as it underwent the change from beast to man. It took mere hours to turn from man to beast. It took days to turn back. It always took days.

During his change the Queen would come to him. She liked to watch him suffer when he was like this, but even more than watching she enjoyed fucking him while he endured the pain of his transformation. While he was the creature he was always hard so he required no stimulation in order to be ready for her. She would mount him while he lay writhing in agony on the floor of his cell. It was her private torment for him, fucking herself on him while he was halfway between man and beast, while he was at his most vulnerable.

She'd laugh as she did so. Only one other thing seemed to bring her more joy than having him like this…

She returned almost every day to have her way with him until his transformation was complete. Then she would change completely. Her wicked laughter replaced with soft murmurs of affection. She'd remove his mask, wash and bath him herself, then pleasure him with her mouth. All the while he felt himself transitioning into a different creature, a different monster. A telltale numbness would settle over him. Feelings of compassion, empathy, individuality started to fade into the background, replaced by cruelty, wickedness, depravity and lust.

Sometimes he would fuck her right there in his cold, dark and empty cell. Sometimes they could wait long enough to return to their private rooms where they would spend hours fucking and pleasuring each other until the Queen had had enough. They'd clean and dress and resume their lives as the Queen and her puppet King.

When she wanted him she had him. When she wanted him to take another he did. He consulted her generals on how better to trample his own people, tortured and killed at her bidding - lived the life she wanted him to because he was her creature, made to be what she wanted him to be, a tool for carrying out her sadistic desires.

Living this way was like living in a tomb. His mind, his true self, was still there watching through the windows of his own eyes with disgust, despair and self loathing. He had stolen moments with Byleth, all of them bittersweet. He refused to let what was being done to them taint what they had, what he still felt. But he could see her breaking down, piece by piece, day by day, and he was powerless to stop it… for now.

"I have a surprise for you, my King." The Queen said drawing him along by the arm after she'd finished having her way with him for the day, to the room adjoining her bedroom.

She'd had it converted into a nursery while he was gone. Decorated in soft colours, filled with toys and various soft objects, and two cribs sitting in the centre of the room. His heart stuttered in his chest, though he outwardly showed no sign of distress. The Queen hushed him and drew him over the cribs where the two babies slept soundly.

He released a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding in a long beleaguered gust of air. Byleth's children were beautiful. He could see both their mother and their father in their little chubby faces.

"Our heirs, my dear King. Aren't they perfect?"

"Yes," _Byleth's_ children were perfect, just like their mother. "Congratulations, my love."

For the first time, while in the Queen's presence, he was struggling to maintain the façade of her loyal and obedient lover. He should take the little ones from here before Rhea could corrupt them into more little monsters. He needed to free Byleth…

He wanted to ask about her, whether she was alright. He _needed_ to see her. Every muscle in his body was coiled as he resisted the urge to leave the wretched queen and go to the woman he loved. The Queen was so enraptured with the infants that she didn't even notice anything was off.

"Here, hold him." She said taking one of the slumbering babies and placing him in his arms before waiting for a response. He had never seen her like this before, even all those years ago when she had been trying to woo him through "conventional" means - all sweetness and propriety to hide the horror she truly was. Rhea was an entirely different person now that she had the Nabatean heirs she'd spent more than half a decade in pursuit of.

Venom and hatred started to surge within him. These children were not hers. She'd tortured their mother, forced her to conceive and suffer through repeated rapes, before bringing them into this world. Only to have them stolen from her. He prayed they never learned of any of it. He prayed they wouldn’t become like their mother's tormentor. Looking at them now gave him as much joy and sadness.

"I have another surprise for you, my love." She took the baby from him again, replacing him back in his crib so carefully the child hardly even stirred.

She was giddy now as she took his hand and led him through the corridors to one of the lounges that the Queen usually reserved for her guests. He could hear what was taking place before he saw it with his own eyes. The wet slaps of skin on skin, the sound of multiple voices moaning, men laughing and calling out mocking encouragements or taunts. They rounded the corner of a book case and his eyes were able to confirm what he'd already suspected.

Byleth was there with the cock of one man in her mouth while the Queen's pet, Rafail, thrust into her ass vigorously. Her cunt was filled with an exceptionally large metal shaft. Surrounding them were several other guests, their cocks in their hands as they watched their friend get pleasured by the Queen's breeding bitch.

Her body looked just as it did before the pregnancy. He guessed that it had to have been at least a couple months since she'd given birth, but there were no signs at all that she'd carried two in her womb not that long ago, other than her full breasts which still dripped with milk now. The work of Solon and his people, perhaps…

At first nothing looked out of the ordinary. He'd seen this wretched scene play out far too many times already. But then the Queen called for Rafail to bring her over, much to the disappointment of the man who'd been fucking her mouth until now. She actually whined as she was pulled away and forced forward on hands and knees to meet the King and Queen, Rafail still thrusting into her rear hole as they approached.

He saw it then. A crown forged of the same cursed black metal as her collar was placed around her head in the shape of a wreath of thorns. It looked delicate, almost beautiful. There was an enchantment on it that made it appear as though flowers and leaves were constantly blooming around it. But he saw the thorns cutting into her skin, holding it tightly in place. Byleth looked up at him and he saw nothing of her usual trepidation and shame. Nothing of her usual self. She looked… excited.

"Am I to take my Master's cock now, Mistress?" she asked of the Queen. Her voice even sounded as though it was not her own.

"If that is what he wants." The Queen responded, looking to him with an all too satisfied smile cutting her lips.

"I've missed that pretty mouth of yours, Little Princess." He said with the creature's voice. His own was screaming, echoing in the prison of his mind.

Eagerly Byleth reached up to pull him free of his pants and started working him with her mouth enthusiastically. She actually moaned around him as her tongue met his skin. "What's brought about this change?" he asked.

"She was… troublesome after the birth. It was like watching someone fuck a corpse. As much as I do enjoy seeing her sad little eyes looking out at me, this is much more entertaining. She wants nothing else now but to have cocks filling her up and breeding her. Her mind is finally in sync with her body, with what she _is_." The Queen said it with so much pride he wanted to reach out and crush that delicate neck of hers with one squeeze of his fist - squash her windpipe and feel the her bones snap beneath his fingers.

Instead he started plunging into Byleth's throat harder and faster. She didn't tense up when he grabbed her roughly by her hair, or at the new, faster pace he set. Rather, she moaned along his length again and he lost himself, cumming down her throat in hot jets of seed. She swallowed his spend down and immediately began cleaning him with her tongue, like she couldn't get enough of him in her mouth.

"See what a good little bitch she is now?" The Queen cooed, leaning over to pet Byleth's head like some kind of dog. Byleth actually leaned into her hand. Dimitri clenched his fists until his nails broke the skin.

_How could he have let this happen? He'd taken too long..._

"We have another celebration of sorts planned for the end of the week. She's going to have a very busy day, aren't you Little Princess?" Rafail had pulled Byleth up so her back was arched back and her breasts were thrust forward, milk trickling from her peaked nipples.

"Yes, Mistress." she gasped out. The masked man behind her hadn't slowed his pace since they'd entered the room and Byleth looked like she was about ready to lose herself. Her inner thighs were already dripping with her own arousal. Dimitri could feel himself becoming hard again.

"Do you want to cum, Little Princess?" The Queen asked, her tone honey sweet.

"Yes, Mistress." Byleth cried. Rafail reached around to squeeze her breasts, coaxing more of her milk to flow down her torso. She groaned, leaning her head back against the Queen's pet. He wanted to pull her away from him. He wanted to tear the pet's head off for her touching her, though he knew Rafail was just as much a prisoner as they were.

Instead he felt a sadistic grin spread across his face as he watched her get impaled without permission to find her own release. "What do you think, my King. Is she permitted?"

"I don't know, my love. I'm not sure if she's ready. Its been a long time since I've watched our little breeding bitch at work. I may need more first hand experience before I can make a decision." He was disgusted with himself. He always was.

"Hmmm, you have been gone so very long, my love. I suppose you may have some fun before I must put you back to work during the celebration. Though my guests will be disappointed." She turned to the other men still watching the spectacle before them. "I'm sure you'll be satisfied with some of the other gifts I have to offer, though, won't you gentlemen?" The Queen waved her hand and more of her pets appeared, going straight to the men waiting in the lounge, their cocks still out. They had no complaints at all. "Leave her, Rafail. It's the King's turn now."

Rafail released her immediately, unsheathing himself and stepping away silently. Dimitri had always found him disturbing. He was always so serene, too still.

Byleth slumped to the ground with a cry, and lay trembling on the floor until Dimitri took up her leash and pulled her up to him. "Did you miss me, Little Princess."

"Oh yes, Master." she breathed. Satisfaction twisted with revulsion at himself.

"Enjoy yourself." The Queen said, before turning to leave.

"You're not staying?"

"I have some business to attend to, and I've had my fun for today." She leaned in to kiss him, forcing her tongue between his lips. Claiming him. She always had to do such things when leaving him with Byleth, like she thought she still needed to prove a point, or that she thought she could still lose him to he woman she once called her daughter. She would never lose him, though. He was never truly hers…

He tugged Byleth to a corner of the room, further away from the orgy going on among the Queen's guests and pets. He pulled her down into his lap, but didn't enter her right away, something that seemed to confuse and disappoint her. "Do you not want me, Master?"

"Always." He whispered against the scar on her neck and she keened delightedly, as his lips touched her hot skin.

This wasn't like the other times when he'd hastened them away from Rhea's influence to speak and act freely. He still felt the Queen's hold on him now. The creature was still there in his mind, pulling his strings towards the profane. Byleth was grinding her hips into him, like she couldn't control her self, making it harder for him to try and break free.

"Byleth?" He had to grit it out, still barely a whisper.

She faltered momentarily, her movements jerking to a brief halt. "That's not - you're not supposed to…" She cried out in pain. When he pulled away to look there was blood trickling down her forehead where her crown of thorns was biting into her flesh.

"I see…" He wiped the blood from her brow with his hand and she whimpered.

"I’m sorry… My King." She breathed and he watched as the crown tightened around her brow again causing fresh trails of blood to trickle down. He wiped it all away with his sleeve.

"Don't. Just be still."

She clung to him more tightly, arms coiled around his neck. "I can't. I need you - you have to…"

Without another word, or hesitation he plunged himself into her ass and she squealed with delight, the pain of the thorns suddenly forgotten. The creature started to take over again. Reveling in the way she writhed over him, the tightness of her hole, the way her ample breasts bounced before him. Like the beast he was he took one pebbled nipple between his teeth and bit down gently. He was rewarded with another gasp of pleasure from her lips. Milk dribbled from the stiff little bud and he lapped it up eagerly.

He hated himself for how much he still enjoyed burying himself inside her. The way she felt in his arms… any amount of contact with her set him on fire.

While she rocked over him he reached down to rub the little bud between her folds and she squealed out again. "Cum for me, Little Princess." He ordered, pulling away from he breasts for just a moment.

Her orgasm was violent, rupturing through her whole body. He assumed she'd been denied all day. "Th-thank you, Master." She panted, still shaking as the waves of pleasure rippled through her.

He tilted her down onto her back, folding her legs up to her chest and started plunging himself in deeper than before. He held her legs in place with one hand while the other took her by the chin, coaxing her mouth open with his thumb. She responded but sucking on him obediently, her clever tongue lapping at his rough skin fervently. "Good girl." He bit out just before spilling himself inside her.

* * *

He fucked her until she was spent, reducing her to nothing but a panting, listless mess in his arms. He then brought to her Mercedes himself.

"You're not supposed to bring her here anymore." Mercedes said but she started to work on her anyway. Bringing out the supplies to clean the sweat and spend from her limp form. The mage noticed the dried blood on her brow almost immediately.

"What happened?"

"You tell me." He growled. "What is that thing?"

Mercedes sighed, frowning as she went back to her work. "The birth was difficult. She would have died if we weren't there to heal her immediately. Then the Queen wanted to take the babies straight away... I managed to convince her it was too dangerous for them all to be separated so early. But she didn't wait long. Byleth hasn’t seen them for a month. And even before that she was just… empty. The Queen didn't like that."

She wiped away the remaining dried blood from Byleth's brow gingerly, and then the glow of her magic came forth, closing the wounds left by the thorns. "I don’t understand. She already has the collar."

"It wasn't enough. She obeyed, but she wasn't… present. It angered the Queen. She wanted to see something from her - anger, or fear, or despair - anything. But she had nothing left. So the Queen had Solon devise this to manipulate her mind. She feels what they want her to feel, mentally and physically now." A tear trickled down Mercedes's face as she moved on to the rest of Byleth's body.

"It bit into her when she - I think she tried to fight it?" he said.

"If she doesn't comply, she'll pay the price." Mercedes replied solemnly. "Though if she is fighting it that may be a good sign… As far as I know its never done this before now."

"Was there nothing you could do?"

"Like what, Your Majesty? We need to keep up this façade if we're ever to put an end to her madness."

"And she must be the sacrifice then? I can't let this go on… She's been through enough - too much."

"What do you suggest? I've tried finding something we could use to break the geases but I have nothing yet. Solon keeps everything to do with the collar and the crown locked away in his own mind. Only he and the Queen know exactly what they did to create them. The best I have is what we originally suspected. We'll need magic, probably Nabatean magic to break it." Mercedes looked tired, exhausted. They were both wearing thin. How much longer before they would be ready to make a move against the Summer Queen?

"There must be something…"

"I think… there may be an opportunity but it's just a guess." she began. "The Queen has invited the leader of the Agarthans to the palace - Solon's master, Thales. He will not be here for another month but I'd expect they will do some kind of demonstration of what they did for him. We may have a chance to learn while he is here."

"They've had scholars lurking about since they woke her up."

"He's different. The Queen would not have achieved all that she has if it weren't for Thales sending Solon to her. She owes him, and if he's anything like Solon he'll want to know exactly what they've been up to."

"That still assumes that Solon hasn't already told him."

"True. But he's never been here himself, correct? And sending such information by messenger could be risky. I'm sure he's aware of what they've achieved, but exactly what was done to achieve it?" She looked him in the eyes. "It's the best I have."

A tiny glimmer of hope started to creep in from the periphery of his mind. "How do you suggest we glean this information? They're not likely to let me overhear."

"They still seem to trust me. And I didn't put up a fight when she finally did take the babies. They almost seem to have forgotten I'm here. I can likely find a way to be present for most of their discussions… As a last resort, Byleth may also be able to tell us."

"That _thing_ will punish her if she speaks of it."

"It's a _last resort_. We're running out of time, Your Highness…"

His teeth ground together with so much force he was certain she could hear it. "They're giving her to a beast at the end of the week."

"I know…"

He wanted to be sick. The thought of her having to carry another child… his child… The Queen thought it would be a monster - like its father… The first time had been a nightmare. A fever dream he could never seem to shake from the recesses of his memory.

He reached out as if to touch her but pulled back abruptly. He'd defiled her enough for one day.

"Dimitri…" Mercedes took his hand in hers gently. It wasn't until she'd held him still that he realized he was shaking. "She resisted the crown when she was with you. She hasn't done that since they placed it on her. Take some solace that when you're together you seem to make each other stronger - strong enough to keep resisting."

"All I do is fail her, and cause her more pain."

"She knows that’s not you."

" _I_ don’t know what is and isn't me anymore."

"Don’t be like that."

"How should I be?"

"Be Dimitri, be our King." She said firmly. "We need you - Byleth, Emile, Indech, all the people of the Winter Kingdom… We still need you."

Fine words, much easier said than done. He'd been the Queen's creature for too long, been without hope for too long. If he hadn't learned that Byleth was still alive would he even have had the courage to rebel now? Or would he have lived out the rest of his days beholden to the woman who had taken everything from him?

He did take her hand then, lacing his fingers with hers. She was still so warm… He pressed a kiss her to her knuckles, watching as she stirred but did not wake from her slumber, and then he turned and left without another word.

* * *

She was ecstatic. Mistress had given her back to her Indech, her mate. Just like that first day, back in her cage where she belonged, she'd woken with him already pumping into her. She would have preferred he take her cunt, fill her with his seed again, give her another child. She needed to be bred, needed to be filled but no one had been permitted to take her in that way. Her Mistress was saving her for something else.

Indech was ravenous. She had almost forgotten how good it felt to have him inside her, his mouth nipping at her skin, suckling at her breasts until she squealed with pleasure. But the more enthusiastically she reacted to him, the more agitated he seemed to become. She didn't understand what was wrong with her. Everyone else wanted her, he clearly wanted her, but something was wrong. She almost asked him what was wrong. But that would be foolish. They didn't need words. All that mattered was that he was fucking her. That was all that ever mattered.

With a grunt he flipped her around and tilted them back so she was splayed out against his chest. He hooked one arm around her legs to hold her in place and kept up his relentless rhythm until they were both quaking against each other. As he started to push into her again he whispered her name into her ear, so low that none of their observers would have heard.

She felt it happening again. A surge of wrongness and that wriggled into her mind like a worm. "Don't." She protested, but she could already feel the thorns sinking in. She whimpered, and he paused everything he was doing. He moved back around so they were face to face. His hands went to cup her face and the crown bit in more, drawing out another gasp of pain. Why did this keep happening? She was trying to be good. She'd been good for so long, but first the King and now Indech had changed that. All it took was hearing her name…

"What have they -"

"Don't, Indech. Please don't. They'll punish you." She could feel blood trickling down her face and over his fingers. He licked it away and instantly became furious. His hands traveled up until the alighted on the twisting black metal circling her head. His face contorted into a snarl. Byleth had never seen him lose control before. He'd always been held in check, either by his collar or his own self control. But he was losing control now.

"Don't, Indech." She pleaded and the crown tightened again. "You have to keep going or it will keep tightening."

He growled, tilting his head against her chest. She could see he was struggling to reign in his emotions. She looked around at their audience who had closed in around the cage, eyes hungry.

"So the crown does work."

"I didn't see anything amiss."

"She must be fighting it. Perhaps she doesn’t want a repeat of her time with the Lion."

"I was there the first time. She looked quite satisfied when he was done with her. She didn't even require the crown to keep her in check."

The crowd laughed. Indech hadn't moved. "Indech, _please_."

He lunged forward, capturing her lips with his at the same time plunging himself back into her rear hole. She felt like she was falling away. The pain around her head eased off and the heat started to rise in her core again. His words fell away. Her name fell away. Everything she was fell away until she was simply his mate. Her purpose was to be fucked and bred, and that was all she would ever need to be.

* * *

"Hmmm." Solon regarded her closely while his assistant cleaned the blood off her face. "What could have prompted you to fight that pretty crown of yours, Little Princess? You've been so compliant since we placed it on your brow."

She hardly heard him. One of his assistants was bringing her to climax with the shaft they'd left in her cunt since that morning. She never found out if he wanted an answer from her. An outcome that gave her a peculiar sense of relief.

He circled around her, coming to a stop near her head to inject a syringe into her neck. "You will behave for your new mate, won't you, Little Princess?"

"Yes, Master Solon." she said obediently.

"Good girl."

* * *

He was all instinct, all lust. He was coiled muscle, pulsing blood.

They'd sent him to the cage first. The beast remembered it. It was not pleased to be alone. He knew she'd been there, her scent was all over the space - her sex, her arousal, her _blood_.

The Lion snarled at the men and women gawking beyond the bars. Jaw snapping. Claws scraping against the bars as he leaned out and bared his teeth.

Then there was a flash and she was there. Her. His.

The beast knew something was different. There was no fear in her eyes, only the same fire of lust that she would have seen reflected in his if they weren't hidden behind his mask. His cock throbbed as he took in her naked form. Though the mask didn't show his eyes, he could still see through it. He could see the rise had fall of her chest as she panted in anticipation, he could see the way her thighs glistened with her own need. Her breasts were as full as they were the first time, already leaking her sweet milk in anticipation for him.

A low purr started to rumble out from his chest. As if answering his call she started to move towards him. The beast was immensely satisfied by this new turn of events. Dimitri was heartbroken.

Once she reached him she began licking along his swollen, throbbing length. She circled his dripping head, sighing in delight as she lapped up his precum, then continued down from the tip to his base. Her satisfied sounds vibrating from her lips to the taught skin of his cock, electrifying his whole being. The beast would not wait though, as much as it enjoyed the feel of her mouth, it needed to be inside her. It needed to mate.

He pulled her up abruptly, the movement not exactly gentle, but she simply yelped and giggled as it settled her entrance over the head of his shaft. He went slow, remembering how much it had pained her the last time. Though even the beast could see that he still stretched her more than it seemed her body could handle, she was enjoying it as she took him in inch by inch.

His tongue slid out, lapping at her breasts momentarily before sliding between her lips to fill her gasping mouth. He was rewarded with a moan as her lips closed around him and she sucked on the slimy appendage. Unable to restrain himself any further the Lion thrust home the rest of the way and he felt his mate clench her sex around him as she came. He stood there, gripping her hips and plunging himself into her as he had the first time until he had filled her with its seed, drawing out another orgasm from her as his spend entered her womb.

He lavished her body with his tongue. The one part of him that he was certain wouldn't harm her. Dimitri knew that the way she looked at him - at the beast - was not who she was. Even the beast seemed to know something was off. But that didn't deter it from rutting into her ceaselessly. She keened at every touch, every suckle at her breasts, ever sweep of his tongue along her wet folds. She came every time he filled her with more of his spend. Her cries were almost as animalistic as his were.

At one point when her belly was already swollen and full of his seed, he leaned in to nuzzle her shoulder, brushing his lips over _his_ spot. For both the King and the beast had claimed her there. Then both King and beast bit down, just breaking the skin before immediately lapping up the little droplets of blood that blossomed along her skin. She tensed for only a moment, letting out a small gasp. When he pulled away from her shoulder to look at her face there were tiny droplets of blood along her brow where her crown rested. He lapped those up as well then pressed his lips to hers. Her body tensed again, before relaxing as she opened her lips to his.

The beast had little concept of time. It fucked its mate until she could take no more. Then it wrapped its gangly grey arms around her, staying well buried in her sex as it waited for her to drift off to sleep. She actually nuzzled into him this time, seeking the warmth of his massive body to transfer over to her own. Something twinged in the heart of the King and the beast as it tightened its protective hold on her.

She was _his_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Always intended to introduce Dimitri's POV eventually, so here he is. My poor boy... T_T Poor everyone. I am a bad person...


	6. Burn

Within a week they confirmed that Byleth was pregnant again. There had been little doubt that her pairing with Indech would produce fruit the first time, but with one of the grey beasts… Until now they had not thought it possible, and not for lack of trying. They'd attempted it with many other subjects, but none with Nabatean blood. That, coupled with Solon's additional fertility experiments seemed to have indeed transformed her into the perfect breeding vessel regardless of the mate that was chosen for her.

The King was only vaguely aware of this news when it was announced to the court. For he was not currently the puppet King. Rather he was still the Queen's Lion, trapped in his cage with his mate, breeding her relentlessly. He hadn't gone more than a few hours without hearing her panting and moaning beneath him. There hadn't been a day since the "celebration" that he hadn't had his claws on her, hadn't tasted her skin on his tongue.

Even the grey beast knew that she couldn't physically take this much strain. It tried to be gentle, but it couldn't stop, was not permitted to stop. She seemed oblivious but for the few times he managed to rouse her from her lust induced stupor. He would watch as her emerald eyes flickered clear, recognition passing over her, soon to be replaced with pain as little beads of blood blossomed along her brow.

It was all the creature could do to try and distract her from the memories and the pain in an effort to help her forget so the thorns would cease their cruel punishment. But watching her become something else, someone else, was almost as bad. It made Dimitri sick. It made the Lion agitated.

They had given him other "sacrifices" in the past. Previous efforts to breed the grey beasts. They had all ended bloody...

Despite this, the King did not think he would lash out at her. The King loved her. The beast... Perhaps it did as well... But he couldn't be certain that he could maintain his control. He'd never spent this long in such close proximity with another living being as the Lion. For all its urges to breed, to mate - it also needed to hunt, and kill. It was only a matter of time before that impulse overpowered the other.

Luckily, someone seemed to noticed that things had been going on too long. One morning he woke and he was no longer in the cage in the great hall, but outside in the wild, caged and leashed. They sent him after rebels, and gods forgive him, but he slaughtered all who were foolish or unlucky enough not to flee. He had too much pent up energy and bloodlust to exhibit any restraint.

The next several days (or was it weeks?) were a blur. Night blended into day, one death followed another, followed another - all linked together by the scent of fresh blood and the screams of his prey. He almost forgot about her... Almost.

When he slept he saw her. Her belly swollen with his child, blood trickling down from the thorny crown circling her head - then her mouth, then her eyes, then running down her thighs. Her death haunted his dreams, spurring the beast on in its bloody work.

No communication from the rebels made it to him during this time.

When they finally brought him back to the palace roughly a month had passed. The transition back to a man was difficult, more so than normal, though the Queen didn't seem to take notice. All that really mattered to her was that he was suffering, and she was in control.

She fussed over him as he pulled on his clothes, tutting at the bags under his eyes and the stiff way he moved. "Did I work my King too hard this time?"

"I am still mortal, my Queen."

"I am sorry, my love. You know how important this is to me. I need to build a kingdom for my children. I need Winter, and Summer and beyond for there will be many more Nabatean children once she's whelped the Lion's offspring. So many more. My children will reclaim the land and the glory that was taken from us so long ago." She came to circle her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him, making it impossible for him to look away. She looked manic again. More often than not that glint of madness gleamed out from her crystalline eyes. It burned brighter whenever she spoke of Byleth or the children. "My legacy will never be forgotten."

"No, my love."

"Shall we go? I believe she's still with my sweet Indech."

He simply nodded, smiling passively as she led him away, but his chest was tightening. Even when she spoke of Indech it was with more affection than she ever afforded Byleth. He had never understood it, and doubted he ever would for her hatred for her former daughter was completely irrational.

As they entered the hall, they did indeed find Indech and Byleth in the cage, though they were not alone in entertaining the court with debauchery. Several of the Queen's pets were also scattered about the vast space, entertaining the courtiers and guests.

The Queen had not shied away from such entertainment, even before she and Solon had determined Byleth was "ready" to be put to her purpose. But she had rarely let such activities bleed into the court outright, certainly not for extended periods of time. For a time she had tried to maintain a façade of civility and decorum. These things would take place, but usually in privacy, and for a small group of select persons.

However, the more Byleth, and Indech, and Rafail, and the others were paraded before her court the more her inhibitions eroded. The veneer melted away. This was exactly who she was. Perhaps not who she had always been, but certainly the woman he had known since he'd become the Summer court's prisoner.

As they drew up to the dais, his eyes locked onto the two in the cage. Just as before, Byleth was already showing, the swell of her belly round and protruding out around the new life that grew inside her.

A pang of jealousy needled its way into his chest and he immediately felt revulsion. He should not be jealous of the man that was fucking her against both their wills. But he had seen them together enough times now. He could see that there was some kind of affection between them, that in spite of everything, something was blossoming between the two as a result of their shared trauma.

Jealousy was swiftly replaced with fear. Fear that he truly was losing her forever. Not just to the crown of thorns that forced her to become someone else entirely, but to the only other person that had suffered through the exact same torture along side her. She'd known Dimitri was a prisoner, and known he was suffering, but not all of it for he couldn't reveal it to her even though he wanted to. They could hardly speak to each other before they'd placed the crown on her. Before that they'd had only a sliver of time to be together as who they really were. Now there was no way for him to reach out to her without causing her more pain.

On top of it all he had promised to deliver her from this nightmare and so far he'd failed miserably. Her torments continued and he continued to be ineffectual at delivering her from any of it.

"I had my doubts." The Queen said, cutting through his thoughts with her jovial tones. "She was such a useless thing. Even after Solon and I had set her right. Not particularly clever, minimal magical aptitude. When we started to put her to work I could see her fighting it, even if the only way she could was willing her body to give up. I suppose I should hand it to her for that at least. I was caught off guard."

He clenched his jaw, but the puppet grinned as he kept his eyes on the cage.

"Now look at her." Rhea sighed, leaning her chin against the palm of her hand. "She'll provide us with heirs _and_ the army that will defend them. My perfect little broodmare."

He could throttle her. It would only take a moment of freedom and she would be dead. But would it follow that their nightmare would be over? Many followed Rhea out of fear, but some members of Rhea's court were genuinely loyal. Would he survive? Would Byleth? Would killing Rhea even be enough to free them or would her magic persist? No… He would not risk Byleth.

"Thales should be here in a week or so." The Queen said, once again cutting into his troubled mind. "I must think of a way to thank him. I have some ideas, but it doesn't quite seem like enough…"

"I'm sure you'll think of something, my clever Queen."

"I suppose there is something, but I require Mercedes to confirm my suspicions first."

He didn't like what she was implying. Hands clenched against the arm of his throne until his knuckles turned white, he kept his eyes on Byleth's face. She hadn't looked up since they'd arrived. There was no sign she even knew anyone else was in the room.

This needed to end.

* * *

"She wanted to know if I could tell how many she was carrying." Mercedes looked agitated. It appeared she too didn't like where the Queen was likely going with her inquiry. "I told her it was too early to tell but..."

"Spit it out, Mercedes."

"I think she's carrying at least two again. It's quite uncommon to have twin's back to back. The things they did to boost her fertility might have something to do with it. It may also be genetic, or both. It doesn't really matter. The Queen must have suspected it might happen again." She wrung her hands together.

"She mentioned a " _gift_ " for Thales." He grit out. He could guess her intent now. "I need to get her away from here, _now_."

"I don't know how. I am trying." Her voice was shaking. She was clearly just as disturbed by the implication of the Queen's inquiry as he was. He wasn't accustomed to seeing her getting this rattled and it was only setting him even more on edge. "Look, I've been thinking. She wanted you for a reason. Your line is powerful, perhaps as powerful hers."

"We've never had an affinity for magic, but yes. Though the power you speak of, it manifests as physical ability and strength. It was so with most of my family. Only a few have had any ability with spells and sorcery. Regardless I don’t see what use it will be now. I can't act on my own. This is the extent of my ability to defy her control." He didn't see the point of bringing this up now.

"But you _have_ been defying her. Only you and one other have been able to. All the other "pets" she has - they never defy her."

"This is hardly worth celebrating."

"It means there's something there. We just need to find out how to apply it." Even Mercedes didn't sound as certain in their plan as she had earlier.

"In the mean time Byleth is trapped and we're bound to stand by and watch." He muttered. He didn't like taking things out on Mercedes. She was trying harder than most, putting herself in more danger than anyone, but his sense of helplessness was urging him to lash out. "She'll want the Lion when Thales arrives. I won't be able to do very much…"

"I'll make sure to keep an eye on her, and them."

"You can't be in two places at once. And Solon will start to get suspicious."

"He had Aelfric monitoring her last time, and look where that got them. I can make it work. I _will_ make it work."

* * *

The pale Agarthan had his pale prick plunging into her while he bounced her over his lap, a wide grin spreading across his face. Byleth moaned over him, oblivious to the gaze of anyone else in the room. The Queen and the King watched on, while a small selection of courtier's and the Agarthan entourage entertained themselves with the other pets the Queen had provided for them. Mercedes, stood with Solon and Aelfric off to one side, looking white as a sheet.

"She is quite something." Thales exclaimed, taking Byleth by the chin to get a better look at her flushed face. "Your other creatures are quite lovely, but this one… So enthusiastic."

"She would not be where she is if it weren't for Solon. I cannot thank you enough for sending him to us."

Thales started toy with her breasts, tugging on the little gold rings, watching her squirm over him until he latched on to one with his mouth and started to suck. A strained mewling sound escaped her, muffled by the violet shaped gag blossoming from her lips. His mouth came away with a pop and he let out a hearty laugh. "Lovely. I’m sure Solon explained when he arrived, but we've been seeking a solution to our own fertility crisis. Have you had any success yet in replicating such a creature?"

"Ah, I thought you might inquire. Unfortunately she is one of a kind and my dear Indech cannot be spared of course. I have tried to create others but she was the only successful result. But if my suspicions prove to be accurate I think we may be able to help you. Mercedes!"

Mercedes left her place with Solon and Aelfric to stand before the Queen. Dimitri could tell she was extremely ill at ease, though she was hiding it well enough. "Yes, Majesty?"

"Do you have an answer for me yet?"

"No, my Queen. I can perform another examination when you're… finished here."

"Please do. My broodmare has another long day ahead of her. There won't be time for another until tomorrow."

Mercedes dared a glance at the King before returning to her place. He made no sign that he'd even heard her speak. The Queen's creature was in control. Grinning out at the scene before him, cock hard where it pressed against the taught fabric of his pants.

"Oh my poor, sweet King. You have been neglected today, haven't you." She stroked his length over his trousers and the creature bucked his hips up to meet her hand almost immediately. "Why don’t I take care of you before I need to let you go again?"

He would accept anything to get away from the scene of that pasty mongrel with his hands all over Byleth. "You spoil me, my love."

"Master Thales, we can continue this later. I have quite the demonstration for you this evening."

"Of course, Your Majesty. I'm quite happy where I am for now."

Rhea took him by the hand lead him away as dread made each and ever step he took feel leaden.

* * *

He was in the cage alone again. Something that only added to his already heightened state of agitation. To add to that his "rival" was chained to the floor just beyond the cage at the foot of the dais. The green haired, blind man looked just as irate at the intrusion of the hulking grey beast, however neither of them were free to do anything about this.

Then in walked their mistress, their tormentor, their Queen.

She brought with her a ghoulish man with skin bone white and spined ebony armor. He looked upon the scene before him with unbridled amusement. The beast seethed where it stood. Unable to move, unable to even make a sound. He was a specimen on display, there to be observed. The Queen guided them to where the green haired man knelt before the dais and the beast watched as they poked and prodded. The ghostly white man grabbed his face tilting it around.

"This is your Nabatean stud then?" he asked.

"Indeed. Poor sweet Indech. He was quite mad when we found him. Roaming about the wilds like an animal. It took a great deal of work to bring him to heal, didn't it Solon?"

"Quite so, Your Majesty."

"They all were really… Do tell him how we remedied that."

"As you wish, Majesty." The wrinkled old monstrosity cleared his throat and then began. "All three have been treated over the years to create ideal hormone balance, pheromone production, sex drive and fertility. Their bodies have been remolded over several years to be fit to purpose. There was much trial and error, several preliminary test subjects. As you are aware the first pairing with Indech was an almost immediate success, and though the Queen is eager for more Nabatean children she agreed to one last test for the Little Princess with one of our grey beasts - our finest grey beast I dare say. He too is extremely unique." The wretched old mage guided them to the cage as he spoke. Calmly reciting the various treatments he and his assistants had administered.

The beast cared only that its mate had not been delivered to it. The King struggled to maintain focus on what they were saying. "As I have explained in our correspondence, the physiological and biological adjustments we made were not enough to keep them all in check. Even the weaker specimens required additional psychological control. So we employed the use of our own Agarthan black iron, coupled with some of the Queen's own expertly executed geases. It's quite an intricate blending of Nabatean magic and Agarthan which is why its so potent and resistant to disobedience and defiance. The collars you have seen were the beginning but our star specimens required some additional… _adornments_ to bring them to heel."

"The King's eye, the Little Princess's crown, Indech's blindfold - they were all required to both suppress their inherent magical abilities and keep their minds in check. They obey, they do not fight back, and they are… enthusiastic, as you have already noted. This whole endeavor has been a success thanks to a combination of science and the joint magics of Agartha and Nabatea." The shriveled mage finished, sounding well pleased with himself.

The beast rumbled out a growl directed at the party of observers but did not move from where he stood. They didn't know he had been disobeying - small though his discretions were. Even the beast knew this was something worth noting, even if only to himself.

"You've already given her to that… thing?" The armoured Agarthan asked incredulously as he observed the Lion's overall massive size, and already erect and throbbing member. "She's such a small thing."

"One of the many physiological improvements we have made. Her body is already incredibly resilient thanks to her Nabatean blood and the manner in which the Queen created her. However she did suffer some complications after the first pregnancy. We have since remedied this. Essentially, no matter how many cocks she takes, how many children she births, her body will recover and quickly. Obviously this is something that can be applied in other areas as well, we're already beginning to run additional tests on some of our soldiers."

"Of course we'll be sending the details back with you." The Queen sad magnanimously. "It is the least we can do. Hopefully when Mercedes arrives she'll be able to bring us even more good news."

They didn't need to wait long, though to the beast it felt like an eternity until his mate materialized before him. She practically lunged at him, leaping into the Lion's arms. He caught her by her hips and instantly plunged himself into her, no longer concerned about hurting her as she had long since adjusted to his size. A low purr thrummed out from his chest and his mate, his Byleth, hummed in response. Her hands reached up to grip his shoulders for leverage. Her entire focus was on him and the beast reveled in it.

For a few brief moments, beast and man had everything they wanted in their arms.

But then their onlookers gathered round and began there incessant chattering. "She quite… attached to it." The pale visitor said.

"It was not always so. The crown has made her much more agreeable and _eager_." The Queen sighed. "It's like night and day."

"Certain factors are likely enhancing her attraction to the beast. As I mentioned, hormones, pheromones… the fact that she carries its seed, for example." Solon added.

"Oh!" The Queen exclaimed as a female mage approached to stand with Solon. "Mercedes, good you're here. Did you complete another examination."

"I did, Your Majesty."

"Well? Out with it, you silly girl."

"She is carrying twins again, my Queen." The woman replied haltingly.

For once Byleth seemed to pick up on what was being said around her. A strange flurry of emotions flitted over her features. Before she could become too distressed he tilted them over, pressing her into the marble floor, being careful not to press too hard against her rounded belly. Its tongue slithered out to tease her breasts and she gasped out in pleasure. This seemed to have the desired effect, her eyes locking onto his clay mask. But it was only a momentary distraction.

"Then I am able to tell you of my second gift to you, Master Thales. When she gives birth you shall have one of the twins. Take it back to Agartha and use it how you see fit. It is only right that we share the fruits of our labours with you."

"You are very good, Your Majesty."

"Nonsense. It is only fair."

Byleth was frozen beneath him. They were frozen together. The beast watched as the crown bit into her skin, but she didn't even react. She was in shock. Her fingers where clenched around the beast's leather arms, her nails biting into his skin. The King was panicking. The Queen had spoken of giving this Agarthan abomination Byleth's child, _their_ child, as though she were giving away a litter of pups.

But while the King's mind was reeling, the beast acted. It leaned over nestling its face into Byleth's neck. It licked along the pale skin of the scar and then spoke her name into her ear in a low, gravely whisper. Neither Byleth nor the King had time to react before the beasts teeth went around the black metal of the collar around her throat and started to bite down. The crowd still had not noticed that anything was amiss. Byleth remained completely still as his jaw clenched like a vice and the metal of the collar began to buckle.

The beast seemed to have clued into what Dimitri had not. This form they gave him was the result of the same magics they'd used to create these restraints. Though he could not always choose when and how to wield it, he _did_ wield some form of Agarthan and Nabatean magic, coupled with his own. Mercedes had said like-magic would be required to break the geases. This would have to do.

He could feel her body getting hotter as the collar began to come apart. It was not the heat of desire but something different, something fiercer. She was burning, her skin almost too hot even for the thick hide of the beast, but he pressed on until the metal finally snapped in his jaws and then everything was green flames and screams of terror.

* * *

When the beast came to the first thing he noticed was the wails of pain and horror, and the searing heat. Blinking his eyes open he found the cage blown open, the bars melted and bent over like long crooked black teeth. He instantly got up and scanned the area for her. Courtiers were running about in every direction, looking for a means of escape but the room was ablaze with green flame swiftly filling the vast space. It rained down from the ceiling, crawled up the walls, and sped in streaks across the floor almost seeming to chase after its victims, cutting off their escape.

There was one light that burned brighter than the rest - a pillar of flame standing a few yards away from him.

Standing before the dais, face covered in blood, her hands gripping the crown of thorns that once sat upon her own head, was his Byleth. At her feet scrambling and groveling like a pathetic worm was Solon. At first he flung spells at her but they fizzled and died upon the flames that enveloped her body. He had resorted to begging, own but even his words did not seem to penetrate her fire. He could do nothing as she bent down and placed the crown forcefully over his misshapen, bulbous head. The thorns scraped across his skin until she had dragged it down, past his forehead to sit over his eyes. The green fire licked across his robes, his skin starting to blister. Her hands remained on either side of the crown and the beast watched as the mettle started to soften and melt and drip down the sides of his head as the mage's screams rose above the terrified cries of the court.

She left him there to burn and scream as she turned to Indech, still chained to the dais, but untouched by the fire. He was still as stone, unafraid and unphased by the chaos that was erupting around him. Byleth placed a gentle hand on his neck and the collar melted away. She then moved to untie the blindfold revealing his scarred eyelids. The green haired man pressed a kiss to her palm as she pulled her hands away but did not touch her again. He broke what restraints remained holding him to the floor, and he too became enshrouded in flames.

Indech's flames burned blue and soon they were streaking through the crowd as well, searing through the court, painting a beautiful and terrible scene along side Byleth's emerald fire.

The beast had been frozen to the spot as he watched the destruction unfold. He caught sight of Mercedes pulling Rafail aside, removing his mask and using her own magic to manipulate the green flames and melt away his collar. She then moved on to any of the Queen's other pets she could find and did the same. He managed to glimpse Aelfric fleeing out one of the few exists unblocked by fire, though he could find no sign of the Queen or the pale Agarthan she'd offered up his child to.

It then turned to the flames that surrounded him and without a second thought plunged his face into them, willing the bonds that held the mask to his face to bend and break under the heat. The pain was unbearable as the fire flickered across his flesh but he persisted. He wanted to join her so desperately… His Byleth…

Suddenly the sting of the fire began to fade and he felt gentle hands on either side of his head as they pulled the mask free. And then he was face to face with her. Even the beast had expected her to be repulsed by his true face, but her expression remained eerily serene. Her eyes almost appeared to be looking through him, beyond him.

He didn't care, for he was gazing upon his mate, his beloved. Her hand glanced over his right eye, the eye that was not his - the parasite. He knew what she was about to do, what she must do, but she hesitated. Finally some emotion other than cold indifference rippled over her features as a worried frown creased her brow. He brought a clawed hand up to take hold of hers and placed her fingers over his eye. He wished he had the words to speak but they all froze and died in his throat.

They didn't need words though. She understood. Green light started to emanate from her hand, but just as he started to feel the heat seep into the black orb he saw movement behind her. The Queen was readying an attack to strike Byleth from behind.

Just as she let her magic loose he took Byleth in his arms and spun them both, taking the full force of the blast against his back. He knew what would come next… His grip on her tightened, but Byleth didn't struggle. Merely buried her face against his chest.

"Bring her back to me, my Lion." The Queen's voice sang to him. His muscles constricted. Pain lanced through every limb as he resisted her call.

"Leave." He grunted against Byleth's hair.

"Not without you."

"You… must… No time…" He could feel her tears wet against his skin.

"I can't!" She sobbed.

"I'll… wait - Always, I'll wait." Each word came out more challenging than the last. "Please go… Beloved."

  
Byleth looked up at him with tears streaking through the blood that still stained her face. Her lip trembled, but she did not speak. Her hands still gripped his arms like a vice. Behind him the Queen screeched for him to bring Byleth to her. Instead he pressed his monstrous mouth to hers for just a brief moment and urged her again to flee. "Go." It came out more like a growl.

His hand started to close around her throat, moving of its own volition. There was horrifying moment where he thought she would not leave, her eyes still locked on his, brimming with tears. She looked as though her heart had just been rent into pieces. And then just as quickly as it had appeared it changed. She became unsettlingly serene once more, her eyes suddenly blank. Her body started to glow, radiating heat until she was so bright he could no longer look directly at her.

It all culminated in another flash and explosion. He was blown back several feet. Another wave of fire swept throughout the hall. The last thing he remembered before the Queen's own rage flooded his system, blinding him with red vengeance and rage, was that Byleth was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a rough week. Trying to focus on ANYTHING has been a nightmare, but I got this chapter done eventually. 
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy. :) <3

**Author's Note:**

> Open to feedback but please know that I am terrified... ⊂(◉‿◉)つ


End file.
